Is Malaysia really lagging behind in attracting foreign direct investment?

Image: Wikimedia Commons

There’s been much agitation and kopitiam talk about reports that Malaysia is falling behind its regional neighbours in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), including supposedly losing out on key strategic investments.

Some point to a June 2020 United Nations Conference on Trade & Development as the basis for the grim talk: “Foreign direct investment to developing economies in Asia ... is projected to decline by up to 45% in 2020”. The report also highlighted that Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam received more than 80% of the US$156bil (RM626.7bil) in FDI that Asean countries pulled in 2020. Only 5%, or just US$7.8bil (RM31.3bil), went to Malaysia – which of course doesn’t seem to augur well for us.