By NNN-Bernama,
Kuala Lumpur : India’s Vinayaka Missions University (VMU) group says it now has greater incentives to continue looking at Malaysia as a strategic investment destination in view of plans to relax rules on foreign equity ownership in the services sector in Malaysia.
The leading educational group, which already has investments in Malaysia, has welcomed the statement by International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed recently that the government may relax rules on foreign equity ownership in the services sector to attract more Indian investors.
VMU Pro-Chancellor Dr S. Sharavanan said liberalising foreign equity ownership by Indian investors in the services sector would have a positive impact in attracting Indian investments to Malaysia.
“We at VMU view Malaysia as a strategic location to invest in, especially with the government’s push towards creating an education hub in the region. We certainly have ambitious plans in Malaysia,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
Sharavanan, who is based in Malaysia, said the group’s priority outside India over the next few years was Malaysia in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI) and that the country would only be second to India in terms of revenue generation for years to come.
VMU, which currently operates the Penang International Dental College (PIDC) and Surya College in the northern state of Penang, has plans to emerge as an established brand in the field of higher education by 2015 with a planned investment of RM260 million (one USD = about RM3.39) over five years, making it the group’s biggest investment abroad.
The group, founded 26 years ago, also operates campuses in India, Thailand, Canada and the United Arab Emirates.
Sharavanan sees Malaysia as an ideal location to attract students from the region, including India and China, as it has advantages in terms of location, logistics and world-class infrastructure besides enjoying lower costs.