The International Trade and Industry Ministry will work hard to attract Thais to invest in Malaysia following Thailand's open attitude to investment.

NONE Minister Mustapa Mohamed said Malaysia must seize the opportunity to lure Thai investors, especially in the real estate, automotive and agricultural sectors.

"Their investment is not big, only in the region of US$300 million compared with our investments there which amount to US$M2.3 billion and efforts to lure them must be done in earnest.

"Previously they did not focus on investing abroad and we must take advantage of this open attitude of theirs to draw them here," he told reporters last night.

Mustapa said he explained the conducive investment prospects to the Thai investors when he met them during Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak's visit to Thailand last week.

Mustapa also said that he was confident that the completion of the RM37.2 million customs, immigration and quarantine (COQ) complex in Bukit Bunga in the middle of next year would further speed up trade in the border area, promote it as a halal product hub and ease the congestion at the Rantau Panjang duty-free zone.

Probe completed into freak accident

In an unrelated development, the police have handed over their investigation papers on the two teenagers in connection with the car plunge at the KB Mall in Kota Bahru last Sunday which killed two people to the deputy public prosecutor

NONE Kelantan police chief SAC I Abdul Rahim Hanafi said today that the DPP would decide whether or not to charge the duo.

The two had since been released, he told reporters when asked about the investigation into the incident.

In the incident, a car broke through a wall of the mall in Wakaf Siku and plunged down an escalator, killing two nursing students while the car driver and another person were seriously injured and warded at the Raja Perempuan Zainab II Hospital here.

The two teenagers who were believed to have been involved disappeared and were arrested in their houses the following day. - Bernama