SPOTLIGHT
KUALA LUMPUR,
A REGIONAL BUSINESS
HUB OF CHOICE Zainal Amanshah shares his views on Malaysian commercial real estate and outlook for headquarters relocation and business expansion for 2012
by Hazrul Izwan Zainal Amanshah is currently the Chief Executive Officer of InvestKL, an investment promotion agency (IPA) under purview of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and Ministry of Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing. InvestKL’s key role is to attract 100 of the world’s largest multinationals to invest in the Greater Kuala Lumpur (GKL) area by 2020. Prior to this position, Zainal has 22 years of experience in the private sector as the Group CEO and co-founder of REDtone, a Malaysian public-listed telecommunications provider. In the course of his career, Zainal is also well versed with the public sector especially in foreign investment.
Property Quotient (PQ) interviewed him recently to gain insight into Invest KL’s initiatives and how multinational companies (MNCs) will influence the commercial property market in Kuala Lumpur. PQ: Invest KL’s mandate focus on attracting large global multinationals to set up their business in Greater Kuala Lumpur/ Klang Valley. What is the rationale behind this? Zainal: With total population of 6 million and a GNI contribution of 30%, Kuala Lumpur needs to be recognised as a vibrant place in terms of doing business and liveability in order to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI), create jobs etc. So to that extent, our government has set this vision under Greater Kuala Lumpur (GKL) plan for KL
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to be top 20 in terms of economic activities and top 20 in terms of deliverability by the year 2020. Invest KL is the dedicated entity that will bring this to fruition. This is how we are complementing Malaysian Industrial Development Authority’s (MIDA’s) role as the lead investment agency in the country, but we are more specialised when it comes to KL. PQ: “Moderation of growth in the economy could cause a slowdown investment, while companies wait for conditions to improve at a better rate”. How will Invest KL react to drive a positive sentiment back on track this year? Zainal: I think in any crisis there are also opportunities and we see that there are opportunities in this scenario. One can learn from Warren Buffet’s famous quote. “Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful”. While Japan is facing a natural disaster crisis, the European economies and the US are in bad shape as unemployment remains at an all time high, there are opportunities for Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia. A lot of economic activities is here and the outlook is good. Politically we are still stable even though election is round the corner and if you talk about liveability and the cost of doing business, we are extremely cost competitive.
Zainal Amanshah, Chief Executive Officer, InvestKL
buildings in order to boost the demand? Zainal: Property developments are very encouraging. A lot of the new hubs coming in are what I call selfsufficient and self-contained. My advice to the developers would be that these developments should have features like green, MSC status, good high-speed broadband and if they don’t have that, then they need to upgrade. It’s not so much on promoting real estate but we are encouraging them (developers) to create an identity. If KLCC decided to be the oil & gas hub, Petronas should have enough base in order to accommodate the surrounding ecosystem. Same goes to KL Metropolis, you have the office, you must have the connectivity to it and the rest will follow. On the softer side, the walkway and the connectivity is PQ: Malaysia has shown tremendous important as LRT/MRT are now become improvement in ranking in terms of doing extremely necessary to compliment business, global competitiveness as well those buildings. as foreign direct investment confidence index in 2012. Can you comment on the PQ: As a closing statement, what is the improvement in ranking? outlook for headquarters relocation and Zainal: The improvement in the ranking businesses expansion throughout Asia actually needs effort; you need to show in 2012? results before you can really move up the Zainal: I think 2012 and beyond until ranking. It doesn’t happen just purely by 2020 does look positive due to the chance and shows that the government’s growth of Asia. Many companies now Economic Transformation Programme are really expanding; they are looking (ETP) is working. We are moving at the potential sectors of growth and deliberately towards the right direction scaling up their operations accordingly. and it will further emphasise the point Some of the ETP announcement does that Malaysia is a hidden jewel. As Datuk involve regional headquarters activities Seri Idris Jala said,” this is not a sprint, or even regional centres of excellence it’s a marathon”. There appears to be a So this is a very encouraging trend. Of structural change in perception as we course the competition is very stiff but can clearly see that the FDI confidence I think the fundamentals are all there ranking moved up from 31 st to 10 th for KL. When you look at headquarter position in 2012. All these rankings hub of opportunities, companies would prove that we are getting better and are naturally look to the city because of the able to answer many of investor’s liberality, connectivity and lifestyle they want. PQ: On the real estate front, a large proportion of Kuala Lumpur’s office space is vacant in recent years. What sort For more information about InvestKL, of quality should we have in commercial visit http://www.investkl.gov.my