ECER Aims For RM30 Bln Investment From Middle East In 2010

12/1/2009 — BERNAMA
The ECER Development Council (ECERDC) aims to clinch RM30 billion of investments from the Middle East next year in the agriculture, food production, tourism and education sectors.
Its chief executive officer Datuk Jebasingam Issace John said Monday the council would also be embarking on a focus mission to the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) in March 2010 to further attract investments for the East Coast Economic Region.
“There are a lot of things we can share (with Middle East investors) in the East Coast. Some of the pristine beaches in this country are in Terengganu and Pahang, so we are trying to get them to look at our tourism cluster,” he said.
“In addition, there are the agriculture, food production and halal industries. These are some of the areas we are looking at for cooperation and investments,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Arab-Malaysian Business Forum here.
Jebasingam said with a mixed portfolio of investors currently, ECERDC could expect to bring increase investments from the GCC in time to come.
“There are a lot of things we can share. East Coast is basically Islamic with the culture and tradition,” he said.
Asked if the present Dubai financial woes would affect the region, he said: “Crisis or not, the demand for food and agriculture products will be there, and the halal industry is a dominant sector that the world is looking at.”
However, he added that the economic region would not be focusing solely on Middle East, but aimed to expand its market to the rest of Asia Pacific as well.