- Region: Asia
- Manufacturing and Services
- Untied Loans
- Guarantees
April 7, 2006
- Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC; Governor: Kyosuke Shinozawa) signed a untied loan today totaling up to US$100 million with RHB Bank Berhad (RHB), a Malaysian commercial bank. The loan is cofinanced with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, which has formed a business alliance with RHB, with JBIC providing a guarantee for the cofinanced portion.
- The loan will help foster supporting industries in Malaysia, where a number of Japanese firms are operating businesses in the manufacturing and other wide-ranging sectors, through RHB. The development of supporting industries will pave the way for locally operating Japanese firms to increase the local supply rate through the sophisticated supply chain, thereby contributing to maintaining and strengthening the international competitive edge of Japanese companies through greater cost reduction.
- Japan signed an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Malaysia in December 2005 in an effort to further improve their mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation. This loan is provided as part of this effort and is expected to help strengthen trade and investment linkages between the two countries.
- To date, JBIC has extended untied loans in support of the export industry, infrastructure development, as well as for the fostering of information and communication technology (ICT) in Malaysia. However, this is the first untied loan that JBIC has provided to a private commercial bank in the country. JBIC intends to continue supporting the ability of Japanese firms to compete in the Malaysian market. It is also committed to making a combined effort for the public and private sectors in a bid to further deepen the new strategic partnership at the private level with Malaysia, a country that has been registering robust growth.