Brief caption:-Minister of International Trade & Industry (MITI), Dato' Seri Mustapa Mohamed presenting the Malaysia Investment Performance of the Manufacturing, Services and Primary Sectors for the year 2016.-YAP CHEE HONG/The Star..
KUALA LUMPUR: Japan continues to be Malaysia’s top source of foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the manufacturing sector since 1980, with a total of 2,621 manufacturing projects implemented as at 2016.
Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) said the projects attracted RM88.5bil in investments and generated 343,281 jobs.
For the first six months of this year, Mida said it approved an additional 16 manufacturing projects from Japan with investments of RM559mil.
“These projects would be located in Johor, Melaka, Kedah, Selangor and Penang,” Mida said in a statement after a dialogue session with the Embassy of Japan, Japanese Chamber of Trade and Industry Malaysia (Jactim) and Japanese External Trade Organisation at the Miti Tower on Thursday.
International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed chaired the dialogue.
Also present were Dr Makio Miyagawa from the Japanese Embassy, Jactim president Toshihiko Todokoro, and Mida chief executive officer Datuk Azman Mahmud.
Mida said the investments approved in January - June 2017 would create 600 more job opportunities for the country.
The bulk of these approved investments, or 75%, were for expansion and diversification activities of existing Japanese companies operating in the country, it said.
Mida said the issues raised at the dialogue included procedures and regulations on trade and investment, as well as Malaysia’s recent review of its foreign exchange policies.
“This initiative is among Mida’s on-going efforts to promote Japanese investments into Malaysia,” it said.
Mida said Japanese companies also continued to use Malaysia as a base to conduct their regional and global operations.
From 2006 until June 2017, there have been a total of 176 global establishment projects with investments of RM2.4bil, creating 2,453 job opportunities.
“This includes the recently-approved principal hub projects from Roland Corp - a notable Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment, and software,” it said.
Roland is a leading manufacturer and distributor of electronic musical instruments, including keyboards and synthesizers, guitar products, electronic percussion, digital recording equipment, amplifiers, audio processors and multimedia products. - Bernama
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