Malaysia eyes RM200bil in approved investments this year

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s approved investments was flattish in 2018, despite a strong surge of investments in the domestic manufacturing sector.

Speaking at the Malaysian Investment Development Authority’s (MIDA) annual media conference, the International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Darell Leiking said that total approved investments last year were valued at RM201.7bil, up by only 0.5% year-on-year (y-o-y).

In comparison, the approved investments in the manufacturing, services and primary sectors were RM200.6bil.

“To break it down further, investments approved for the period of January to June 2018 were valued at RM86.1bil, while a total of RM115.6bil investments were approved for the period of July to December 2018,” said Darell.

For 2019, MIDA targets to record a total approved investments of over RM200bil.

In 2018, the manufacturing sector saw a 37.2% growth in approved investments totalling RM87.4bil, despite the global economic slowdown. MIDA figures show that approved foreign investments for manufacturing projects last year have more than doubled to RM58bil from 2017’s RM21.6bil.

Darell said this reflects the country’s success in its targeted approach in attracting investments into high technology segments.

China was the biggest contributor of approved foreign investments into manufacturing sector last year, valued at almost RM20bil.

Despite the strong performance in the overall approved investments into the services and primary sectors reported contraction in 2018, valued at RM103.4bil and RM10.9bil respectively.