Miti to leverage on insights from Amcham’s survey to fine-tune policies — Tengku Zafrul

KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (Miti) will leverage on insights from the American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce’s (Amcham) Economic Impact Survey (EIS) 2022-2023 to fine-tune trade and investment policies to further enhance Malaysia’s position as a preferred investment destination.

Miti Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the business association’s findings reflect confidence in the Madani Government’s policies and in its earnest efforts to facilitate the investors’ journey since December 2022.

“Miti welcomes the findings from Amcham’s EIS 2022-23, notably how United States (US) manufacturing companies’ RM92.2 billion investments to date have contributed RM199.4 billion to our exports and RM23.3 billion of spillover impact to Malaysian companies and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), notably in the electrical and electronics (E&E) sector.

“These created 126,185 jobs for Malaysians, including for 232 PhD holders and 4,219 master’s degree holders,” he said in a LinkedIn post yesterday.

On Monday, Amcham presented the findings from the survey, which saw the participation of 81 Amcham members.

Of the respondents, 65 were American multinational companies and half were manufacturing companies, with E&E manufacturers being among the largest groups of respondents.

Tengku Zafrul said Miti appreciates Amcham members’ commitment to enhancing Malaysia’s workforce, with 65 per cent of manufacturers’ offering fully funded training initiatives.

This, he said, reflects the New Industrial Master Plan 2030’s (NIMP 2030) focus on catalysing public-private collaborations for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programmes.

“The fact that a majority of respondents will be incorporating artificial intelligence into their business activities in the next three years signals a potential uptick for the Malaysian E&E industry.

“We are also heartened by the finding that 60 per cent of American manufacturing companies are planning additional investments in the next five years,” he said.

Tengku Zafrul said that together with the RM1.92 billion research and development allocation by American manufacturing companies in 2022-23, all these collectively support the achievement of Malaysia’s key objectives to move up the global value chain while securing higher pay for local skilled workers, as outlined by the NIMP 2030.