Johor can maintain No. 1 position for manufacturing sector investments

ISKANDAR PUTERI: Johor is confident of maintaining the state’s position as the leading investment destination in the country for the manufacturing sector this year.

State Tourism, Trade and Consumerism committee chairman Datuk Tee Siew Kiong said Johor has created history as the only state in Malaysia that has maintained its top position in the manufacturing sector for five consecutive years.

He said in 2013, Johor received RM14.4bil investments in the manufacturing sector and the figure went up to RM21.1bil and RM31.1bil in 2014 and 2015 respectively. Tee said Johor retains the top spot for manufacturing sector investments received when the state clinched RM26.4bil in 2016 and RM21.9bil for last year.

“Although there was a decline in 2016 and 2017, due to slow global economic growth, interest in Johor remains strong from domestic and foreign investors,’’ he said.

Tee said from the total figures for last year, RM16.8bil investments in the manufacturing sector received by Johor came from domestic direct investments and RM5.1bil were from foreign direct investments (FDI), creating some 10,174 job opportunities with Australia, China and the United States being the top foreign investors.

He said from 2013 until last year, the state received about RM115.06bil investments in the manufacturing sector with RM72.2bil from local sources and RM38.8bilfrom foreign sources.

“We have created some 74,576 job opportunities for the past five years with 35.86 per cent of investors had chosen to come to Johor,’’ said Tee.

He said the state government was not worried about challenges in attracting new investments to Johor in the coming years despite the uncertainties in the global economic growth. Tee said investors would usually conduct in-depth feasibility studies before deciding to invest in other countries or locations. He pointed out that Johor has the right ecosystem to attract them.

“We welcome investors from all over the world and do not segregate them according to regions or countries as long as they are able to create valued-added to our economy,’’ he said. Tee said the state has diversified its manufacturing-based activities in the past 10 years by focusing on capital intensive and high-technology investments, such as biotechnology, green technology, medical and artificial intelligence.