TOKYO: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today met with leaders of Japan's major economic and business organisations, and invited them to make more investments in Malaysia.
The organisations were Japan's Keidanren, Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Japan-Malaysia Economic Association, Japan Foreign Trade Council Inc, and Keizai Doyukai.
The office bearers were also heads of some of Japan's top companies, including Panasonic Corporation, Japan Airlines, Mitsubishi Corp, Hitachi Ltd, Sumitomo Corp, Mitsui & Co, Marubeni Corp, and Honda Motors Co Ltd.
In his opening remarks, Dr Mahathir said Japanese investors were among the first to set up business operations in Malaysia and today account for 1,400 plants nationwide.
"We hope to have more than that. Each plant you put up means more good jobs for our people. One of the problems we have is unemployment and for this we need more investments from abroad," he said.
The prime minister said the new Malaysian government is business friendly, welcomes foreign direct investment (FDI), and wants to reduce unnecessary bureaucratic procedures.
"For this we need your cooperation. Tell us what gets in the way of your investment in Malaysia and the government will look for ways to resolve them.
"We are still an open economy and apart from FDI, we are going to learn how to produce things by ourselves. For that we need Japanese technology which is very advanced," Dr Mahathir added.