Mahathir Asks Japan Firms to Invest More in Malaysia

June 12, 2018

Tokyo- Visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad called on Japanese businesses Tuesday to expand their investment in his country.

He made the request during a meeting at a hotel in Tokyo with business leaders, including Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, and Akio Mimura, chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Mahathir expressed his wish to boost new investment in Malaysia, adding that he wants Japanese companies to contribute to the country's development.

He also said that the Southeast Asian nation should learn more from Japan so that it will develop into a major industrial power.

According to Mimura and other participating Japanese business leaders, Mahathir stressed that free trade should be promoted, including under the revised Trans-Pacific Partnership pact.

Mahathir, however, said that there is a need to study how free trade between countries at different levels of development should be.

Japan, Malaysia and nine other countries signed the revised TPP in March, after the United States pulled out of the original 12-member TPP last year. Jiji Press