Housed on the upper floor of the posh building, Intermark in the enclave of Ampang city centre, you will get a nice bird’s eye view of the city centre when you stand at the window of the Royal Norwegian Embassy. The embassy office has a warm reception feeling with Nordic interior design, simple with understated elegance.
HE Morten Paulsen greeted me with a friendly grin on his face. Vivacious and enthusiastic, yet formal without the uptightness – my impression towards His Excellency.
Norway way was ranked the ninth largest investor country in Malaysia in 2018. The Nordic country has a population of 5.42 million and sits on the wealthiest sovereign fund in the world.
In the exclusive interview between HE Morten Paulsen and BusinessToday, we explored the trade between the two nations and growth opportunities for bilateral relationships be it technology, cultural and educational exchange.
BusinessToday: Your Excellency, it would be good if Your Excellency could share with us the Norwegian investment figures too.
Ambassador: There are about 50 Norwegian -controlled companies in Malaysia as of 2021. If you are looking from the perspective of per capita, that is a relatively high figure given that Norway has only a population of 5.5 million. The number of employees employed by these 50 companies is approximately 4,000.
Direct investment in Malaysia over the years from 2010 till 2015 had been on an increasing trend, from 1.7 billion NOK to 2.5 billion NOK. But 2020 saw a dip in the figure, totalled at 1.9 billion NOK due to the pandemic and closed borders.
While the Norwegian portfolio investment in Malaysia has been growing steadily over the years even with the pandemic, in 2020 itself the investment in stocks stood at 19.9 billion NOK as compared to say, 2010’s NOK8 billion. For bonds investment, NOK10.8 billion in 2020 as compared to NOK0.4 billion in 2010.
The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global being the global largest sovereign wealth fund has invested in 145 Malaysia-listed companies as of December 31, 2020, a total of 19.4 billion NOK in equities and 11.4 billion in bonds.
BusinessToday: We understand that the Norwegian sovereign fund is the largest in the world, thanks to the revenue generated from production of petroleum and natural gas. Being a large exporter of oil and gas, we also notice that Norway has been very far ahead in their EV adoption. Can you share the Norwegian experience with us and how we may do better?
Ambassador: EVs are not taxed in Norway whereas cars run on petroleum are heavily taxed. That encourages the public to opt for the EVs. Even though we are a petroleum producer, we sell expensive and taxed petroleum at pump stations (RM10 per litre). This acts as a deterrent for the public to consider cars with internal-combustion engine (ICE). Approximately 80% of new car sales are now EV.
Infrastructure-wise, Norway has comprehensive coverage of charging stations across the country. This is to alleviate the range anxiety. To address the problem of coverage of charging stations, there has to be a comprehensive cooperation between the public and private sector. The private sector will only offer the charging services if it is economically viable and profitable to do so.
The financing of the upgrading of the electricity grid due to higher EV demand is a complex discussion involving many parties.
For full version of the interview, kindly check out the print-version of BusinessToday magazine April 2022.
