According to sources, Apple Inc. has begun hiring employees for a retail push into Malaysia, preparing to bring its chain to the Asian nation for the first time.

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According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, "The company recently published job listings on its website for locations in Malaysia, seeking store managers, technical specialists and support staff, salespeople for businesses, and operations experts. The listings indicate that the positions will be for Apple’s own retail stores, not third-party reseller locations that have long operated in Malaysia.

The move will bolster Apple’s presence in Southeast Asia, where it already has stores in Thailand and Singapore. The company also recently started promoting job listings for its first location in India, which has been planned for several years.

The job listings don’t indicate where in Malaysia the first store will be, but Apple is likely to start in Kuala Lumpur, the nation’s capital." For more, read the full Bloomberg report.

Kuala Lumpur's population is roughly 2 million. Apple may also be eyeing Singapore, an island that's situated at the tip of Malaysia that has a much larger population of 5.6 million.

For now, Apple's job listing for Malaysia as presented in-part below, indicates that that there are still 13 job openings to be filled. The Sales Area Manager position is noted as being in  Kuala Lumpur, though the rest of the positions are at "Various locations within Malaysia."  

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