Total Australian investment in Malaysia amounted to RM2.6 billion at the end of 2006 compared to RM1.04 billion at the end of 2005, according to the Australia-Malaysia Business Council National (AMBC)
Financial groups to have dealt in the Malaysian economy in the last year include ANZ, who are spending $833 million to purchase 24.9 per cent stake in AMMB Holdings, a bank that offers retail, commercial, investment and Islamic Banking and IAG who paid $69 million to take a 30 percent strategic interest in Malaysian insurer AmAssurance Berhad.
Macquarie Global Property Advisers (MGPA), a private equity real estate fund management company in which Macquarie Bank have a 49 per cent stake, entered into the real estate sector.
"New ventures in the manufacturing sector can be 100 per cent foreign owned and the financial sector is being liberalised and capital controls on overseas investments has been relaxed," said AMBC president Wee Keat Chan.
"Malaysia's economic prospects for 2007 and 2008 are very positive as reported in November 2006 by the World Bank's 'Economic Update for Malaysia," said Chan.
