MALAYSIA’s economy has begun regaining its momentum as the total approved investments for various sectors within the country reached a total of RM64.8 bil since January to June 2020.
During the first six months of the year, the RM64.8 bil of investments were placed in the manufacturing, services and primary sectors, involving 1,725 projects and has the potential to create 37,110 employment opportunities locally.
Of the total investments approved, domestic direct investments (DDI) accounted for 69.8% or RM45.3 bil, while foreign direct investments (FDI) made up the remaining RM19.5 bil.
Among the top five sources of FDI for the three sectors during the period include Singapore (RM4.9 bil), Switzerland (RM2.8 bil), China (RM2.2 bil), the United States of America (RM2.2 bil) and Thailand (RM1.8 bil).
In terms of the approved projects by state, the five major states (namely Sabah, Selangor, Pulau Pinang, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur and Johor), contributed RM47.1 bil (or 72.6%) of the total approved investments throughout those six months.
According to a press statement from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA), the manufacturing sector attracted the largest portion of approved investments, making up of 55.1% or RM35.7 bil.
Following that, the services sector gained RM28.6 bil (44.2%) of the total investment amount, while the primary sector had the remaining RM500 mil (0.7%).
The total investments approved in the manufacturing sector were mainly in petroleum products including petrochemicals (RM13.6 bil), machinery and equipment (RM5.2 bil), electrical and electronics (E&E) products (RM5 bil), food manufacturing (RM2.1 bil), scientific and measuring equipment (RM2 bil), transport equipment (RM1.8 bil), chemicals and chemical products (RM1.6 bil) and non-metallic minerals (RM1 bil).
These make up 90.2% of total approved investments for this sector.
Compared to the corresponding period last year, DDI in the manufacturing sector registered an increase of 79.8% to RM17.9 bil while the value of approved FDI dropped by 33.7% to RM17.8 bil.
As for the services sector, it recorded 1,316 approved projects from January to June 2020, with investments of RM28.6 bil and an expectation to create 10,114 jobs to the local economy.
The top five contributors of approved investments in the sector were real estate (RM12.2 bil), utilities (RM9.4 bil), support services (RM2.4 bil), financial services (RM1.8 bil) and telecommunications (RM1.3 bil).
During the first half of the year, approved investments in the support services industry saw an increase of 18.5% compared to the corresponding period in 2019 due to the surge of projects in the integrated logistics services and green technology sub-sectors that recorded increases of 172.1% and 7%, respectively.
Meanwhile, the primary sector attracted investments worth RM471 mil, comprising three main sub-sectors of mining, agriculture and plantation, as well as commodities. All approved investments in this sector for the period is from domestic sources.
The mining sub-sector took the lead with approved investments of RM468.5 mil in six projects, followed by the plantation and commodities sub-sector with investments of RM2.5 mil.
“While foreign investments assume an essential role in the development of the country, greater emphasis is being put in place to drive domestic investments and turning more domestic companies into global players,” MITI senior minister Mohamed Azmin Ali said. – Sept 26, 2020.
