KUALA LUMPUR: Schlumberger Ltd on Tuesday opened its financial hub in Kuala Lumpur which will provide employment for about 400 people next year.

The Schlumberger Financial Hub is part of the Entry Point Projects (EPPs) to attract 100 multinational companies (MNCs) to set up their global or regional headquarters in the Greater Kuala Lumpur or Klang Valley under the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) recently announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The hub will provide financial and accounting services to Schlumberger’s businesses in Asia Pacific, the Middle East, European and African regions and 75% of its employees hired here will be Malaysians.

“Malaysia was the obvious choice for this new facility. The country offers highly qualified professionals with excellent customer service attitudes,” said Schlumberger’s chief financial officer Simon Ayat.

“Malaysia is open to attracting knowledge-based activities, offers an excellent business environment with the government committed to the development of education as well as the country’s infrastructure,” Ayat added.

Schlumberger is a United States-based oil and gas services company which has been present in Malaysia since 1935 and has offices for its other business chapters in Kemaman, Miri and Labuan.

Delivering his speech at the opening ceremony, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator Datuk Seri Idris Jala said the nine EPPs under the ETP also targeted multinational companies to locate their global or regional headquarters in the Greater Kuala Lumpur or Klang Valley.

Idris also said two rounds of Steering Committee meetings had already taken place and many initiatives were in various stages of progress towards luring more MNCs to relocate their headquarters to Kuala Lumpur.

On another matter, Idris also said that Petroliam Nasional Bhd would announce more incentives for the oil & gas industries soon without giving any timeframe.

“There are a lot of opportunities for local players to participate in — be it in the form of construction work or providing related oil and gas services. All of this will come into play,” Idris said.

According to Idris, the type of incentives that companies can expect is the renegotiation of certain contracts for renewal like production-sharing contractors such as Shell and Exxonmobil.

This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, November 18, 2010.