Financial Times

Malaysian investors are more concerned about inconsistencies in policies and regulations by government authorities than the security situation in Sri Lanka, Malaysian High Commissioner Nazirah Hussain said last week.

Asked by reporters whether escalating violence in Sri Lanka’s northeast region was a deterrent to Malaysian investors, Ms Hussain said: “Security is not the issue. The main concern is laws and regulations and inconsistencies in these areas.”

She was speaking to reporters during a briefing in Colombo by the Sri Lanka- Malaysia Business Council (SLMBC) on the forthcoming annual awards to recognize Sri Lankan companies doing business with Malaysia. Her comments on Tuesday afternoon came a few minutes after a bomb exploded in the capital, just about three km away from the press conference site at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC).

Ms Hussain’s view follows comments made by the leader of a Malaysian delegation last month when he said security problems didn’t deter investors. “We look for opportunities … places where people are reluctant to go – that’s entrepreneurship,” Soong Siew Hoong, Secretary-General of the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce & Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM), was quoted as saying in Colombo during an interview with The Sunday Times FT.

The Malaysian High Commissioner said there had been instances of inconsistencies in government policy but didn’t give details.

Journalists were told that a consortium of Malaysian contractors that have signed an MoU with the Sri Lankan government to build the new 106-km Colombo-Kandy expressway – from the capital to the central hill town of Kandy, has begun pre-feasibility studies.

“Pre-feasibility studies are on and the contract would be thereafter handled by the Malaysian consortium. Hopefully the toll road would be completed in two years,” Ms Hussain said. The MoU was signed two years ago but work didn’t get started due to changes in government.

She said Malaysia is keen to get more infrastructure contracts in Sri Lanka and made proposals for the Norochcholai coal power plant on the northwest coast – which has been awarded to a Chinese company – the Hambantota harbour on the southern coast and various other power projects.

Currently a Malaysian company, Cotton Production Co has tied up with a Sri Lankan clothing firm to grow cotton.

Asked to comment on Sri Lanka’s faltering peace process, the High Commissioner said that Malaysian has a policy of non-interference in the affairs of another country. “Like all the people in Sri Lanka we also wish there is peace. Whatever the situation we are encouraging Malaysian companies to invest here.”

Dialog Telekom, part of Telekom Malaysia and Sri Lanka’s most successful telecom firm, is sponsoring the SLMBC awards for the second successive year.