M’sia on track to achieve 50 pct of approved investments
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is on track to achieve 50 per cent of its approved investment target of RM200 billion for 2018 by endmonth, following Saudi Aramco’s RM28 billion investment.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said currently, about 40 per cent, or RM80 billion, of the investments, were already in the pipeline, on top of Saudi Aramco’s RM28 billion investment which would come in by end of the month.
“Our economy exceeded all expectations, so much so that the World Bank had to revise its estimate for our growth upwards not once, not twice, but three times.
“No wonder then, that the international business community showed its confidence in Malaysia, with RM197 billion worth of private investments in 2017, of which, RM54.7 billion were foreign direct investments,” he said in his keynote address at InvestKL Annual Ministerial Event 2018 yesterday.
He said of these, global establishment projects that were approved totalled RM14 billion, with nine out of the 225 projects comprising Principal Hubs.
Najib said with Principal Hubs utilising a massive RM2.3 billion worth of ancillary services, these would have catalytic and multiplier effects on the local economy through job creation across many sectors such as real estate, hospitality, education, medical and tourism.
These multinational companies (MNCs) of various sectors were from the US, the UK, Germany, France, China and Japan.
“The diverse nature of the FDIs coming into Malaysla clearly illustrates the attractiveness of our ecosystem and the ability of talented Malaysians to be at the forefront of Industry 4.0 and digitalisation,” he added.
Earlier, InvestKL Corp Sdn Bhd chief executive officer, Datuk Zainal Amanshah, announced that it has attracted 73 MNCs as at end-2017, registering approved and committed investments of RM11.07 billion and creating 10,971 regional highskilled jobs since its inception in 2011.
Meanwhile, for 2017 alone, InvestKL managed to attract 12 MNCs with approved and committed investments of RM2.22 billion and 1,689 jobs created. — Bernama
Our economy exceeded all expectations, so much so that the World Bank had to revise its estimate for our growth upwards not once, not twice, but three times. Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Prime Minister