Foreign investors are also concerned about the security situation in the country, International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed said today

NONE In his opening remarks at a ministry-hosted dialogue with several foreign chambers of commerce in the country and the police, Mustapa ( centre, in picture ) said this concern was raised by investors at several dialogues a number of times in the past year.

"The reason we are meeting is that in a few dialogues before with chambers of commerce (we found) that issues of security have an impact on investment.

"I promised a meeting to deal with these issues... we are here to see what else we can do to improve the situation in the country," Mustapa said.

Among concerns raised were cargo theft and personal security.

azlan "This includes snatch theft," he said, adding that crime was only one among many factors considered by foreign investors.

However, the ministry cannot quantify the estimated losses sustained by investors from such crimes.

According to Taipei Investors' Association Malaysia president Chen Po Hsiung, his association members have in the past months experienced instances of cargo theft.

However, Chen said, police have assisted them on the matter and were taking steps to improve the situation.

"The police officers even gave us their private telephone numbers. We hope there will be no more incidents in the future," he said, thanking also the government for today's dialogue.

'Provide crime data'

Like Chen, European Union-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairperson David Jones said complaints have also been made by the chamber's members.

azlan "But it could happen in any country. It is easy to talk about snatch theft but these things equally happen elsewhere," Jones told Malaysiakini .

He said the "significant" drop in crime rates since 2009 indicated that "it's not as bad as it seems".

"If we can have access to the data, we can share it with future and current investors (to show this)," he said.

Jones added that the next step would be to deal with the perpetrators of crime.

"As we say in England, nip it in the bud," he said.

Also at the dialogue was inspector-general of police Ismail Omar, who shared the view that it was more a case of perception rather than reality - an issue he said police were hoping to rectify.

Police also vowed to cut the esponse time for incidents of crime, and have made recommendations to reduce the theft of cargo.

NONE The dialogue was also attended by Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Mukhriz Mahathir as well as ministry secretary-general Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria.

Aside from Ismail, top police officers present included criminal investigation department (CID) deputy director Hadi Ho Abdullah, Kuala Lumpur police chief Mohmad Salleh and Kuala Lumpur CID chief Ku Chin Wah.

Members from the American, German, Japanese and South Korean chambers of commerce also attended the session.

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