Bright outlook for investments
SELANGOR, being the most developed and prosperous state in Malaysia, has a track record of being successful in its business endeavours.
With its investment arm Invest Selangor, the state actively pursues business opportunities and courts investors to further enhance its economic performance and fiscal earnings.
Invest Selangor goes all out to lure investors to the state by organising programmes that showcase what the state has to offer.
Going by the records, 2017 was a sterling year for Selangor which saw the state’s contribution the national gross domestic produce (GDP) increase from the previous year’s 22.7% to 23%.
The state’s manufacturing sector also saw a growth of 7.9% in 2017.
That same year, Selangor attracted 202 approved manufacturing projects which brought in direct investments totalling some RM5.59bil.
Out of that amount, about RM3.43bil and RM2.16bil were domestic direct investments and foreign direct investments respectively.
Current figures also indicate that Selangor came out tops in the first quarter of 2018 in terms of the number of up and running projects.
This year, Invest Selangor had aimed to secure a total of RM7bil in investments for the manufacturing sector.
Selangor exco in charge of investment, industry and trade, small and medium industries (SMEs) and Invest Selangor chairman Datuk Teng Chang Khim has been quoted as saying that things were looking bright for Selangor on the investment front, thanks to positive trends and international investors’ confidence in the state.
Apart from this, Selangor has been helping SMEs in the state grow.
This is being done through various programmes organised by the Selangor Information Technology and E-Commerce Council (Sitec).
Teng and his team from Invest Selangor and Sitec have also been making numerous business visits to China to promote the interest of the state’s SMEs.
This is because the state believes that Selangor’s SMEs and digital economy could benefit from the rapid progress of new retail and smart manufacturing in China.
“The Selangor delegation visited Hainan, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and have been in talks with the departments of Commerce and e-Commerce Promotion of the provinces of Hangzhou and Guangzhou,” Teng had said early this year.
He added that these activities were aimed at paving the way for business matchings between Selangor’s SMEs and Chinese businesses.
According to data, Sitec has helped to generate RM7.3mil in sales through 51,000 orders from its 300 onboarded merchants on the Sitec Online 100 programme from June 2015 to the end of last year.