KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia recorded total approved investments of RM329.5bil in 2023, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
He said that this is 23% higher than 2022, adding that this is the highest level of approved investments in the country's history.
Anwar then added that out of the total investments, foreign investments were the main contributor at 57.2 per cent compared to domestic investments of 42.8 per cent.
"This excellent performance is supported by an increase of 35.1% for domestic investments and 15.3% for foreign investments," he said in a media statement.
The matter was tabled during the National Investment Council Meeting (MPN) No. 2/2024 on Thursday (Feb 22).
Anwar said that the country’s investment landscape showed a very encouraging performance, adding that this also reflects the recovery and revival of the economy throughout the Madani government’s administration of over one year.
"Indirectly, this is a sign that the pro-investment and pro-business friendly policies implemented through the whole-of-government approach have been fruitful in increasing investors’ confidence,” he said.
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The total approved investments involved 5,101 projects and would potentially create over 127,000 new job opportunities to the people and country.
The services sector recorded the highest investments, contributing over half or 51.1 per cent of total approved investments at RM168.4 billion, followed by the manufacturing sector at RM152.0 billion (46.1 per cent) and primary industries at RM9.1 billion (2.8 per cent).
The MPN Meeting No. 2/2024 also discussed the drection of the national digital investment, in line with the development of the digital economy which is expanding rapidly and is among the key economic sectors in strengthening the country’s investment agenda.
The digital economy in Malaysia which contributed 23.2 per cent to the gross domestic product in 2021, is projected to rise to 25.5 per cent by 2025.
For the 2021- September 2023 period, a total of 396 digital-related projects were approved with investment value of RM128.9 billion, which included projects approved through the National Committee on Investments (NCI).
Investments in the digital projects are expected to create jobs for 36,553 local citizens.
Among the digital investments approved were for data centres, cloud computing, data hosting, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence.
The presence of renowned global digital companies and global market leaders in Malaysia also gave an important signal that the country has the attraction and conducive investment ecosystem for digital investments.
Hence, the government needs to facilitate as best as possible the potential digital investments without any compromise on aspects related to data security and national sovereignty. - Bernama
