INVESTKL UPBEAT ABOUT ATTRACTING 10 MNCS THIS YEAR
Next 10-year plan to focus on attracting high quality investments in technology and innovation-based activities
INVESTKL is upbeat about attracting 10 multinational companies (MNCs) to set up operations in Greater Kuala Lumpur with a combined investment value of RM1 billion this year.
Chief executive officer Muhammad Azmi Zulkifli said the agency would provide an update of Malaysia’s investment status for the first quarter in the coming weeks.
“We expect to finalise more than two MNCs involved in insurance, cloud computing, enterprise solutions, big data, engineering and management,” he said after announcing InvestKL’s performance update yesterday.
Azmi said the new MNCs secured in the first quarter would offer more than 500 high-value jobs, primarily for actuarial and data-engineering talent.
“We are also collaborating with local universities to build a talent pipeline to match potential investors’ requirements.
“We are confident that the economy will return to normalcy this year on the back of the government’s Covid-19 vaccination programme. Business optimism is slowly returning.”
He said InvestKL also aimed to attract 100 of the world’s leading MNCs and fast-growing companies to set up regional services and technology hubs in Malaysia by 2030.
Its next 10-year strategic plan, anchored on the National Investment Aspiration (NIA) blueprint, is focused on attracting high quality investments in technology and innovation-based activities to catalyse Malaysia’s move towards a high-income economy.
The target came after InvestKL, which is under International Trade and Industry Ministry, completed its 2011-2020 target of attracting 100 MNCs to invest in Greater KL.
InvestKL achieved its target of attracting 100 corporations in October last year and ended the year with a total of 103 high growth companies in various industries.
It recorded a total investment of RM15.8 billion in the 10-year period, along with 14,111 regional executive jobs created.
To date, RM11.4 billion, or 72 per cent of the committed investment, have been realised.
A total of 10,411, or 74 per cent of the committed jobs, have been filled.
InvestKL said Europe accounted for the largest investment with 51 companies, followed by Asia Pacific (28) and the United States (24) during the 10-year period.
He said the NIA blueprint had three objectives, namely encouraging MNCs to bring in and share their best practices to revitalise the nation’s innovation capacity, promoting the advantages of investing in the five domestic economic corridors, with Greater KL as the strategic regional hub and boosting the growth of small and medium enterprises.
InvestKL also unveiled two key initiatives yesterday, namely Greater Kuala Lumpur Live Lab and Fit4Work.
The lab aims to attract companies to collaborate with local players to elevate the area’s competitive advantages for quality, innovation-led and knowledgeintensive activities.
Fit4Work aims to increase the quality and competitiveness of young graduates, with potential job placements with MNCs, government-linked companies and major corporations within the services industry.