Various measures taken to attract FDI — Darell
KUALA LUMPUR: The government is committed to improve policies and strategies to attract quality investments, including foreign direct investments (FDI), to Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak, said Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Darell Leiking.
He said these efforts were important to ensure the government policies met the needs of the country and strengthened Malaysia’s position as an investment destination.
Darell said the government had taken various measures to lure foreign investments to the country, particularly Sabah, such as introducing strategies and incentives to encourage high-value investments including Industry 4.0 and digital economy.
He said his ministry also focused on high value, technology and innovationbased investments that could generate more opportunities for other investments as a result of forward and backward linkages.
Additionally, he said the ministry improved the investment ecosystem through identifying gaps in the value chain of each industry and determine the investments that could fill the void.
Darell said that in response to Senator Datuk Yong Wui Chung’s question on the efforts and plans undertaken by the ministry to attract more investors to the country, especially Sabah, as well as suitable investment areas in the State during the Dewan Negara sitting here.
He said the ministry also reviewed and improve on incentive policies and investment facilities to ensure they were more competitive than other countries in the region, as well as organize investment missions to overseas in order to encourage and attract new investments.
Darell said the investment promotion efforts by the Federal Government was based on competitiveness, potential and suitability of the investment and business ecosystem in a location or state.
“The initiatives and incentives undertaken by the Federal Government to lure investments were not focused specifically on a state as the it was a business decision by investors based on their study and assessment.”
Nonetheless, he said the Federal Government always worked with state governments and the relevant agencies to step up efforts in promoting investment.
“The potential industries which we have identified include tourism, education, fishery and aquaculture, chemistry, logistics, downstream projects for palm oil, green technology and biomass.”
On the other hand, Yong also asked the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi whether the promotional efforts undertaken by Tourism Malaysia were relevant.
He also wanted to know more aggressive and cost effective promotions carried out by Tourism Malaysia especially through the social and digital platforms.
In response, Mohamaddin said his ministry constantly strived to study and identify more comprehensive and relevant digital marketing and promotional programmes in light of the competition to promote Malaysia as the main tourism destination.
Among the measures taken include implementing digital tactical advertising campaign in cooperation with online travel agents (OTA); working with travel portal agencies and search engine portals like Expedia and Traveloka in promoting attractive tourism packages; enhancing digital marketing campaigns through smart partnership and sharing with international and domestic airlines such as Singapore Airlines, KLM, Malindo Air, Malaysia Airlines and Turkish Airlines.
Mohamaddin said the ministry also promoted tourism products on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter and blogs as well as working with key opinion leaders to promote Malaysia through their social media platforms.
Additionally, he said the ministry implemented digital advertising campaign with a targeted approach through search engines like Google and social media.
He said digital promotions and marketing programmes on social media platforms and search engines were more cost effective, adding that these were also the latest advertising platforms to promote our tourism industry.
“Adopting digital advertising ensures Malaysia remains competitive in the global tourism industry and elevates the country as a world-class tourism destination.”