SHAH ALAM: The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) is confident of attracting high-quality investments in the manufacturing sector this year despite the global economic uncertainty and plunge in oil prices.
Chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Azman Mahmud said Mida was confident of maintaining the momentum in investments flowing into Malaysia in 2016 as the country’s fundamentals were strong.
“Today more people are confident (of investing) in Malaysia. There are no signs showing investments are in downward trend. We can maintain the momentum in investments coming into Malaysia this year,” he said.
He told a press conference this after attending the official opening ceremony of Oncogen Pharma (M) Sdn Bhd’s Research and Development (R&D) Centre at Glenmarie on Thursday.
Azman was commenting on Mida’s overall investment outlook this year considering Malaysia’s competitiveness as a location of choice for high-tech investment in the region.
Mida had approved some RM153.2bil of investments in the manufacturing sector for the first nine months of last year and RM235.9bil for the whole of 2014. The 2015 full-year figures will be announced on Feb 29.
Azman said many investment deals were in the pipeline and as such, there were no signs that indicated that investors were pulling out from their planned investments in Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Oncogen Pharma CEO Junaid Waheed said the company’s R&D centre was the first Oncology Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) research centre in ASEAN that complied with the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) standards.
He said the centre would be a path-breaking beginning in the company’s vision and commitment to supply high-quality oncology products that complied with all the stringent international regulatory requirements at affordable prices to majority of cancer patients.
“These products will be researched, developed and patented in Malaysia, and will then be supplied to all over the world including the US and European markets,” he said.
Junaid said this year, Oncogen Pharma would complete its Formulation R&D Centre in Glenmarie, followed by the construction of two API and Formulation plants in the next three years.
“After the completion of these projects, Oncogen Pharma will have a fully integrated oncology manufacturing establishment in Malaysia. It has already acquired two pieces of industrial land in Bandar Enstek, Negri Sembilan, to build the two plants,” he said.
Azman said Malaysia’s pharmaceutical industry continued to move forward with significant opportunities whereby from 2012 to September 2015, approved investments in the industry amounted to RM1.9 billion.
“The oncology products that will comply with European and US FDA standards, are expected to contribute over RM100mil to Malaysia’s export in the first five years of production,” he said. - Bernama
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