KL to ease rules on foreign investment

KL to ease rules on foreign investment

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will ease procedures for foreigners to
buy property and major stakes in local companies as part of
efforts to boost the country's competitiveness, reports said on
Saturday.

The move follows a series of reform initiatives by Prime
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to cut red tape and increase
government transparency since taking over as premier from
Mahathir Mohamad last year, the New Straits Times said.

From August, rules for property transactions as well as
acquisitions of interests, mergers and takeovers of local
companies for foreign investors under the Foreign Investment
Committee (FIC) will be simplified to cut down the current two
months' processing time, the newspaper said.

Investors will be required only to make a declaration in a
prescribed format that they have or will fulfill the conditions
stipulated, it said.

Although Malaysia has sufficient domestic liquidity, foreign
investment is key to ensuring technology transfer in its quest to
become a knowledge-based economy by 2020 and reduce a serious
budget deficit, analysts said. -- AFP