DESPITE a tough economic situation, Malaysia recorded a total of RM109.8 bil worth of investments in the first nine months of this year.
The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) said of the total investments approved, domestic direct investments (DDI) accounted for 61.2% or RM67.2 bil, while foreign direct investments (FDI) made up the rest of RM42.6 bil.
“The investments are focused on manufacturing, services and primary sectors. It involves 2,935 projects and is expected to create 64,701 jobs,” it said, in a statement.
The top five nations investing in Malaysia are China (RM1 bil), Singapore (RM8 bil), the US (RM2.8 bil), Switzerland (RM2.8 bil) and the Netherlands (RM2.4 bil).
For approved projects by state, the five biggest recipients are Selangor, Sarawak, Sabah, Kuala Lumpur and Penang, contributing RM76.8 bil (69.9%) of the total approved investments from January to September.
“The manufacturing sector attracted the largest portion of approved investments for this period, contributing more than half (59.5%) or RM65.3 bil, followed by the services sector with investments of RM42.8 bil (39%) and the primary sector with approved investments of RM1.7 bil (1.5%),” noted MIDA.
A breakdown of sectors that received investments under the manufacturing category were petrochemicals (RM15 bil), basic metal products (RM14.5 bil), electrical and electronics (RM7.7 bil), machinery and equipment (RM5.8 bil), chemicals and chemical products (RM4.5 bil), food manufacturing (RM3 bil), transport equipment (RM3 bil) and scientific and measuring equipment (RM2.1 bil).
“These industries make up 85% of total approved investments for the sectors,” said MIDA.
For the services sector, MIDA said the top five contributors of approved investments were real estate (RM23.7 bil), utilities (RM7.2 bil), support services (RM4 bil), telecommunications (RM2.6 bil) and financial services (RM2.1 bil).
“For the primary sector, RM1.7 bil investments were made in areas such as mining, agriculture and plantation and commodities,” it said.
Touching on the investments, Senior Minister of International Trade and Industries Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said the Government was working hard to attract investments despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are confident that investors will derive value by taping on Malaysia’s well-established local supporting industry network and talented workforce, to undertake high-tech products manufacturing and high value-added services,” added the Gombak MP. – Dec 1, 2020.
