Financial Times

Go where no one dares – is the motto of a group of Malaysian investors who were in Colombo last week looking for business opportunities, investment partners and sourcing arrangements.

The leader of the group said Sri Lanka’s problems didn’t deter investors who were going to places where “others are reluctant to go.” “We look for opportunities … places where people are reluctant to go - that’s entrepreneurship,” said Soong Siew Hoong, Secretary-General of the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce & Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM), in an interview with The Sunday Times FT. Asked whether the conflict in Sri Lanka where dozens have died in violence since earlier this year, worries investors, he said:

“In a way yes – we could have had a biggest delegation if not for those negative newspaper reports – newspapers are not friendly to Sri Lanka. But inspite of all this we are looking for opportunities in places where others don’t want to go.” He made this comment while pointing to another colleague who has invested in some trouble spots.

Soong was leading an 8-member delegation from ACCCIM during a four-day visit of this umbrella chamber which represents more than 24,000 Malaysian Chinese companies through 17 constituent-member chambers.“We are looking for new business opportunities and we are not too worried about the Tigers,” he laughed. The delegation is looking at selling Malaysian products, sourcing products from here and seeking joint venture partners in sectors including palm oil machinery, air pollution control systems, bottled water, TVs, energy saving devices and steel plants.

Michael Shak is director at Bluecros, one of Malaysia’s largest manufacturers of energy saving systems that has also invested in many countries where others are reluctant to go like Iran, Cambodia, Bangladesh and parts of Africa.

But he is disappointed with the Sri Lankan experience. “I have been visiting this country regularly in the past five years looking for a joint venture partner to manufacture energy savings systems that provide a minimum 30 % savings but each time I find a partner, the government changes,” he lamented, saying problems arise in getting approval when administrations change.

Soong, who has his own trading company, said they were looking to buy tapioca starch and groundnuts from Sri Lanka and hunting for suppliers.

“There is a big demand in Malaysia for these products and we don’t have enough. We need 15,000 to 20,000 metric tones of tapioca starch. We currently import from Thailand and Indonesia and looking at Myanmar as a source, but this is not enough. We would like to source some of this from Sri Lanka,” he said.

Tapioca starch is used in textiles, glucose and other food products. For peanuts or groundnuts as a snack for Malaysian consumers, Soong said, they were “easily looking at supplies of 20-30 tonnes a month.”

He said Malaysian buyers would provide markets, and technology as tapioca starch and peanuts have to be made according to specific needs.

A.K. Woo, deputy leader of the delegation and managing director of a company that produces air pollution control systems, said they were looking to tap into the Free Trade Agreements Sri Lanka has with India and Pakistan and also the EU GSP + benefits.

“We’ll like to set up manufacturing plants here and tap into those markets,” he said.

The delegation met Board of Investment officials, chambers of commerce and industry and some potential partners.