Malaysia rolls out 'Golden Pass' to lure unicorns and VC firms

New schemes offer exempted work visa fees, tax benefits and more

20240422 Malaysia Anwar

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim speaks at the KL20 Summit forum in Kuala Lumpur on April 22. (Photo by Norman Goh)

NORMAN GOH and HAKIMIE AMRIE, Nikkei staff writers

KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia has rolled out new incentive packages to attract the world's leading startups and venture capital firms to the country, hoping to build a robust startup ecosystem that will spur growth.

"With the right investors and the right talent in Malaysia, we will make Malaysia the Southeast Asian base for global technology companies under the Unicorn Golden Pass. We want to attract global unicorns to enter Malaysia so that high-skilled and high-value jobs are created, besides developing a pipeline of future entrepreneurs and senior leaders in tech," said Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli in his keynote address during the KL20 Summit startup event in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

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