InvestKL Chief Executive, Datuk Zainal Amanshah, will step down from his position as CEO upon the completion of his contract on 10 July, 2019. He was appointed the first CEO in 2011 and will have served a full eight year term. He leaves to pursue opportunities within the private sector.
As a pioneer at InvestKL, having joined the investment promotion agency since its inception in 2011, Datuk Zainal has been instrumental in setting the dynamic course of the agency. During his tenure, InvestKL had successfully attracted 80 multinational corporations (MNCs) as of 31st May 2019, bringing in a total of committed and approved investments of RM12.0 billion into Greater Kuala Lumpur. These investments have also created more than 12,000 high skilled regional job opportunities for Malaysians. The agency achieved 4 awards, namely, the Top Investment Promotion Agency (Asia Pacific Region) Award from Site Selection magazine for 2015, 2017 and 2019 as well as The MNBC Award 2017 from the Malaysia Norway Business Council.
“Malaysia is in a position of strength with its business friendly environment and resources to attract high value, high skilled and innovation-led investments. Despite the global economic volatility amid the U.S. and China trade tensions, among others, the InvestKL investment pipeline remains resilient.”
“We continue to see healthy interest from U.S., European, Chinese and Japanese MNCs to set up regional services and innovation hubs in Malaysia. These companies come from our targeted sectors which include smart technologies, consumer technologies, e-commerce, medical devices, industrial automation as well as energy and renewables,” said Datuk Zainal.
“It has been my honour to participate in the national vision of attracting large multinationals to set up their Regional Hubs in Greater Kuala Lumpur. My sincerest appreciation goes to my reporting Ministers and their Ministries, namely MITI and KWP, the InvestKL Board of Directors for their steadfast guidance and my team who has been passionate in driving our agenda to success,” he said.
InvestKL Chairman Datuk Seri Michael Yam said, “Datuk Zainal has been an inspirational leader to the InvestKL team, having led the agency in achieving many key milestones for the agency. We thank him for his valuable contributions over the past eight years and wish him all the very best in his future pursuits.
“The Board and I are also pleased to announce the appointment of Encik Muhammad Azmi Zulkifli who will step into the Acting CEO role effective July 1, 2019. I am confident that Azmi will continue to champion Greater KL as a destination of choice for global MNCs to establish their regional business and innovation centres. I look forward to working with him to take InvestKL to the next level,” said Datuk Seri Michael.
Encik Muhammad Azmi Zulkifli, who is currently InvestKL’s Director of Investor Relations for the European Region, has been with the agency since 2012. In his current role, he works to identify, facilitate, and develop solutions for foreign MNCs to locate their regional hubs in Greater KL and Malaysia.
Prior to InvestKL, Azmi has over 16 years’ experience in leadership and management positions spanning commercial, business transformation and business operations with MISC Bhd. He participated in MISC’s business transformation initiatives and was part of a leadership team to re-engineer, develop and commission a global ICT system throughout MISC offices globally.
Azmi holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Marketing) from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA.