Grant Thornton Unveils ICIF

 

Kuala Lumpur 11 May 2007 - Growing interest in Asian countries has prompted Grant Thornton Malaysia to launch a unique service that will facilitate its clients to focus on three key investment and business destinations - Indonesia, China and India.

The service, aptly referred as ICIF which stands for Indonesia China India Focus is also aimed at bringing investors from these three countries into Malaysia.

According to Grant Thornton Consulting Managing Director Dato’ N K Jasani, the consulting firm’s latest initiative is targeted to spur the bilateral investments for companies from the four countries in various sectors including plantations, mining and manufacturing.

“Indonesia, China and India are definitely amongst the highest growth economies globally. Their stock exchange indices’ continue to lead the world market. They would soon become the leading economies of the world. Based on their strengths, these countries not only compete with each other but also complement each other. Furthermore, the cultural, language and geographical aspects that bind these countries to Malaysia will certainly contribute to the success rate of a business investment. Another key aspect for our business community is that their level of development in plantations industries and services provide ample opportunities based on our Malaysian experience and resources.”

“This global influence will no doubt create endless opportunities to the business environment. However, with their massive population, dedicated workforce, available natural resources and economic development, they are different. Their economic structures and rapid growth provide competitive advantage and the impact they have will remain different in the coming years,” said Jasani.

Jasani added that with ICIF, clients will now have a dedicated service that will look into all these factors and provide a responsive and integrated approach to starting or acquiring business ventures in these countries.

“ICIF will not only facilitate our clients in Malaysia and in ICIF countries but also through our network of Consultants and Bankers on identifying the business opportunities or potentials that are present in these countries.”

“ICIF will keep our clients updated on any request for joint ventures in these four countries. Using the synergy of Grant Thornton Malaysia and Grant Thornton Indonesia, China and India’s various resources in terms of due diligence, tax advisory, approvals support, corporate finance and restructuring, we can give better service thus ensuring the successful delivery of our clients’ business objectives,” added Jasani.

Grant Thornton’s first endeavour to ICIF was to create awareness among its clients and contacts on the various opportunities and risks involved when doing business in each country and the likely impact they will have on them.

At the launch, a special talk on “Doing Business in Indonesia” was hosted exclusively for its clients and guests. The talk, first of many more talks to follow suit, was presented by Grant Thornton Indonesia’s Adviser Ch’ng Chin Hon, who provided an insightful practical guide to doing business in Indonesia. A Malaysian by birth, Ch’ng was trained extensively in US, Canada and Singapore and is currently based in Indonesia. Chin Hon’s experience lies in his unique qualifications of having finance / accounting and marketing credentials. He has performed many merger & acquisition projects including cross border deals. He is currently advising some foreign medical service providers on entry to Indonesia. Chin Hon has almost 20 years of business experience in Indonesia and brings along extensive international expertise and local knowledge to assist clients in achieving the desired results.