Austria Keen To Expand Cooperation With Malaysia - Envoy

By Christine Lim

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 23 (Bernama) – Austria is keen to cooperate with Malaysia by working closely in new areas of investment, academic research and political interests.

Austria’s Ambassador to Malaysia, Gerhard Eisl, said Austria views Malaysia as taking a key role in ASEAN and shares many common interests.

“This is as Malaysia is the centre of Southeast Asia, and Austria is also in the centre of the European region. So we are two important countries. We share many attributes. We worked closely together on nuclear disarmament,” he told Bernama in an interview in conjunction with his visit to Bernama’s headquarters on Thursday.

Malaysia and Austria established diplomatic relations in 1962.

Currently, there are about 60 Austrian companies operating in Malaysia, with the majority of them in the high-value industries, including semiconductors, advanced technology, automobiles, and lifestyle consumer products.

Notable companies include AT&S, Doppelmayr, Andritz AG, Softwareq, KTM Motorcycles,  Swarovski, Voith Hydro and Global Hydro.

According to Eisl, Austria would like to deepen cooperation with Malaysia in the infrastructure, renewable energy, hydropower and also in the Electrical and Electronics (E&E) sectors.

“They're very interested in Malaysia and the Malaysian market. There will be an opening of an Austrian company by the end of March in the area of hydropower. There are also many others who want to come, who are currently exploring,” he said, adding that more Austrian investment in electric vehicles (EVs) is also expected to come to Malaysia.

The ambassador added that the companies that are already in Malaysia expressed their desire to expand their operations here.

According to Eisl, Austria has also been one of the global leaders in the railway sector and  would like to expand collaboration in this area.

In the area of academia, he said, Austria has been collaborating with Malaysia through the ASEAN-European Academic University Network (ASEA-UNINET), a network of universities, comprising European and South-East Asian universities, to promote internationalisation of education and research.

“ASEA-UNINET is a network with the participation of eight Malaysian universities and 21 Austrian universities,” Eisl said.

He also praised Malaysia’s successful ASEAN chairmanship last year, in achieving a truce between Cambodia and Thailand and with Timor-Leste becoming the 11th member of ASEAN.

“Most probably, a political visit from a group from Austria in May to Malaysia is expected,” he said.

Eisl noted that with the expected conclusion of the EU free trade agreement with Malaysia by 2027, this will be a win-win situation for Austria, as part of the EU and Malaysia, to work even more closely together.

-- BERNAMA