Meet and greet: Najib being introduced to South Indian captains of Industry in Chennai by Eswaran (on Najib’s left)

17/04/2017 (The Star) - As the dust settles from the recent official visit by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to Chennai and New Delhi, the Malaysian Associated Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MAICCI) is taking steps to crystallise the various business arrangements that were signed during the trip.

MAICCI president Tan Sri Kenneth Eswaran said that this was the most successful visit to India by any Malaysian Prime Minister.

He said Najib gave valuable insights to Indian businessmen in a candid conversation.

“The Prime Minister talked about the vast economic and business potential available to India’s investors,” Eswaran told StarBiz in an interview.

Najib’s visit to India from March 30 to April 4 was his third since taking office in 2009, underscoring his deep personal commitment to strengthening ties with one of Malaysia’s closest allies.

During his visit, Indian and Malaysian business leaders signed one of the biggest trade deals in Malaysian history, amounting to US$36bil (RM158.68bil).

This amount was even higher than the RM144bil worth of deals signed by Malaysia in China just four months ago.

The bulk of the Indo-Malaysian projects worth a total of US$32.13bil are to be implemented in Malaysia.

Eswaran said with Najib having paved the way, it was now up to the business side to “convert the MoUs to action.”

The highlight in Chennai was a business roundtable meeting organised by MAICCI for Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to meet with South Indian captains of industry.

“The response to the roundtable was so overwhelming that we had to restrict the number of Indian business leaders who could attend,’’ Eswaran said.

Besides Chennai and New Delhi, Najib also travelled to Jaipur in Rajasthan state where infrastructure development is big.

He said MAICCI will hold a council meeting on April 22 where details will be discussed, adding that a report will be prepared for the PM.

The 26 Indian firms at the Chennai roundtable included AJ Vaccines, Naruvi Hospital, MS Swaminathan Foundation, Trivitron Group of Companies, TVS Motor Company Ltd, Buhari Group, and Mohan Mutha Exports.

The MAICCI chief said the businessmen came up with very interesting business proposals during their meeting with Najib.

“These included building a hospital linked with accommodation facilities to boost medical tourism in Malaysia.

“Another was to build a BCG vaccine facility here. There was also a proposal to create a high-tech agriculture university, which will help improve Malaysia’s food security,” he added.

Eswaran said the presence of the Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Ali Hamsa at the roundtable was a plus point.

“As former director-general of the Public- Private Partnership Unit, Ali understands very well how business and government can work together,’’ he said.

The significant MoUs involved the development of an integrated maritime city in Pulau Carey between MMC Port Holdings Sdn Bhd, Sime Darby Property Bhd and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (India) worth US$22.78bil (RM100.23bil).

There will also be a Pulau Carey port project between MMC and Adani estimated at US$9.39bil (RM41.43bil).

The other agreements involved highway construction, building of solar power plants, palm oil development, and creation of higher learning facilities.

Malaysia and India also signed an air services agreement, where more planes from Malaysia will fly into India every week.

The agreement will bring the number of seats approved for Malaysia to a new total of 22,531, up by 1,861 passengers.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, who was among the 10 Cabinet Ministers who accompanied Najib, said the extra seats were approved for the six major cities of Chennai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.