RHB Bank and Thai investment agency join hands to promote business

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24, 2006: RHB Bank Bhd (“RHB Bank”) and the Office of the Board of Investment (“BOI”) of Thailand have agreed to work closely together in a new effort to further enhance business and investment ties between Malaysia and its northern neighbour.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) to seal the agreement and open a new chapter in Malaysian-Thai co-operation was signed in Bangkok today.

Signing on behalf of RHB Bank was its Deputy Chairman Dato’ Abdullah Mat Noh while the BOI was represented by its Secretary-General, Mr Satit Sirirangkamanont.

Dato’ Abdullah expressed confidence that the efforts by RHB Bank and the BOI would promote a new wave of cross-border business and investment activities between the two countries.

Under the MOU, RHB Bank and the BOI agreed to: 

Exchange information and consult one another with a view to promote business and investments between the two countries, particularly in sectors with a high potential for growth;

Encourage their respective officials to interact with each other in an effort to further strengthen their working relationship;

Work together to promote projects of common interest, and

Facilitate one another’s fact-finding and business development efforts.

Dato’ Abdullah said RHB Bank would assist the Malaysian embassy in Bangkok and the various Malaysian government agencies in Thailand in their efforts to facilitate Malaysian companies’ investment activities in the kingdom.

“The Thai economy is one of the strongest in the Asean region, and investment opportunities abound in this country. We, at RHB Bank, want to be the conduit for the flow of Malaysian investments into Thailand, thus helping Malaysian companies benefit from such opportunities,” he said.

He said the scope of the MOU also enabled RHB Bank to assist in the growth and development of Thailand, particularly in the promotion of business opportunities in the various sectors that show great potential for growth.

“We are also confident that the new level of co-operation between our two sides will further enhance and improve bilateral ties between Malaysia and Thailand in the spirit of Asean,” Dato’ Abdullah said.

He said that with the Asean Free Trade Agreement (Afta) in place and trade barriers and tariffs coming down, intra-Asean trading activities would increase exponentially, thus offering up even greater opportunities for the private sector.

RHB Bank’s ties with Thailand stretches back more than 40 years, to February 1964 when it opened its branch in Bangkok, making it the first Malaysian commercial bank to have a presence in Thailand.

The branch offers consumer and enterprise banking solutions as well as treasury services to a growing list of clients, particularly among the large community of Malaysians who have been investing and working in Thailand as well as Thais who have business ties with Malaysia.

Today, RHB Bank is the fourth largest financial institution in Malaysia. It is a leading provider of home loans and one of the top lenders in the small and medium industries (SMI) sector.

It also has one of the fastest growing credit card bases, accounting for more than half a million cards in circulation today. It has one of the widest ranges of cards to cater to the entire spectrum of credit card users.

The bank’s Treasury Division recently won two awards from Asiamoney magazine for being the Best Domestic Provider of FX Services.

It is also part of the RHB Group, one of the largest integrated financial services groups in Malaysia with products and services that include merchant banking, stock-broking, unit trust, asset management and Islamic banking.