Foreign and domestic investments surge 52.47pc to RM61.6b
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia approved RM61.6 billion in foreign and domestic investments in the first eight months of this year, said Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Dr Ong Kian Ming.
This was a solid improvement of 52.47 per cent from RM40.4 billion recorded in the same period last year.
“From January to August, foreign direct investment (FDI) accounted for RM43.8 billion (of total investments) versus RM24.4 billion previously,” he said.
The top three foreign direct investors are China, Indonesia and the Netherlands.
“As for domestic direct investment, we approved RM17.8 billion, an increase from last year’s RM16 billion,” he said in his keynote address at the Affin Hwang Capital Conference Series 2018, here, yesterday.
He said the approved investments involved 411 projects with the potential to create more than 34,000 jobs, mainly in the oil and gas, chemical product and electrical and electronics sectors.
He said Malaysia was becoming an attractive investment destination for companies from China following the trade tariffs imposed by the United States on China.
He, however, said the ministry would be selective in approving investments.
“We say ‘no’ to setting up of mere assembly lines. We say ‘no’ to manufacturing investments that lead to bad pollution.
“We say ‘yes’ to high-skills job creation. We say ‘yes’ to relevant technological transfer that local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can leverage. We want to attract more investments that can be part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution framework and propel our SMEs into the global supply chain,” he said.