KUALA LUMPUR: The United States welcomes Malaysia's efforts to explore investment potentials, especially in strategic and high-impact sectors like tourism and digital industries, as the country is transitioning into the endemic phase.
US ambassador to Malaysia Brian D. McFeeters said Malaysia's success in its vaccination programme had helped to boost the confidence of investors and tourists as it hoped to reopen its borders soon.
"Americans, like other citizens all over the world, everybody is trying to get the ability to travel again and Malaysia is attractive for adventurous American tourists who may want to see the rainforests and beautiful beaches.
"Personally, I've had family members who visited me here 10 years ago (during his tenure as a political counselor) asking me when they could come back," he said during his visit at Sri Pentas in Bandar Utama today.
McFeeters said the Malaysian government had done an admirable job in coping with the Covid-19 pandemic, with its high vaccination rate, one of the fastest countries in the world.
He said the government's move to ease movement restrictions by reopening economic and social sectors, and recently reopening the state borders, would help boost tourism activities and helped companies in the country to fully resume their operations.
"The United States has a strong and consistent partnership with Malaysia for a long time and that remains. We have about US$25 billion (about RM103.91 billion) investments in Malaysia.
"On the people-to-people (initiatives), we have exchange programmes and about 7,000 Malaysians are studying in the US, as well as security relations with the Malaysian military in maritime cooperation to protect the country's sovereignty. Those are areas for growth."
He said the government's aspiration like MyDIGITAL (to anchor digital economy) and Jalinan Digital Negara (Jendela) to provide better connectivity was aligned with the US in the digital side.
"American companies are well-suited to be part of that. We have leading semiconductor and cloud companies operating here. Microsoft has just announced US$1 billion (about RM4.16 billion) investment in Malaysia, included in the plan to train one million Malaysians."
On his visit to Sri Pentas, McFeeters said the embassy had partnered with Media Prima Bhd for a long time in publicising the outreach programmes.
"Today, we learned of many possibilities that we hope to follow-up on in terms of showing the good things the American companies are doing (here) and more engagement by the US embassy in Malaysia."
On hand to welcome him was Media Prima Bhd group chairman Datuk Seri Dr Syed Hussian Aljunid and managing director Rafiq Razali.
Also present were Media Prima Omnia executive director and chief executive officer Datuk Michael Chan, Media Prima Audio chief executive officer Nazri Noran, Rev Media Group CEO Samuel Wee, ntv7 CEO Seelan Paul, Media Prima Omnia government & regional sales director Mohd Efendi Omar, and The New Straits Times group editor Ahmad Lokman Mansor.
Mcfeeters and his entourage visited Media Prima Rev Group, Media Prima Audio conty and Media Prima news' Studio A.
