THE largest investment Malaysia secured during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in San Francisco was from Enovix Corporation, International Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said.
He said the advanced silicon battery producer, which is headquartered in the United States, would invest RM5.8 billion over the next five years and establish a manufacturing plant in Penang.
Tengku Zafrul said this move is part of Enovix’s global expansion plan. It will partner with YBS International Bhd to initiate the first manufacturing line at a cost of RM315 million.
The deal was achieved during a one-on-one session between Enovix chief operating officer Ajay Marathe and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who was accompanied by Tengku Zafrul and Malaysian Investment Development Authority chief executive officer Arham Abdul Rahman.
“Enovix’s move into Malaysia is aligned with Malaysia’s New Industrial Master Plan 2030.
“Malaysia was Enovix’s obvious choice as we have the technical expertise and a business friendly environment,” Anwar told a press conference at the end of the summit today.
Anwar also met with Google leaders – president and chief investment officer Ruth Porat, Asia-Pacific president Scott Beaumont, and global vice-president of government affairs and public policy Karan Bhatia.
Tengku Zafrul said Google would initiate programmes in Malaysia in skilling, investments in digital infrastructure, responsible artificial intelligence innovation and cloud-first policies.
He said the tech giant would train up to 300,000 Malaysians by 2026 on its five digital learning courses via Google Cloud, CloudMile and Trainocate at no cost.
The courses would be accessible via the Go Cloud programme and built on the digital training programme Gemilang, Tengku Zafrul said.
He said social media platform TikTok was set to invest US$2.8 billion (RM13.08 billion) via parent company ByteDance in Malaysia to establish data centre facilities, on top of the US$6 billion the company has already invested here.
Tengku Zafrul said Anwar was briefed on the matter by TikTok chief executive officer Shou Zi Chew.
He also said Microsoft would pursue more investments to expand its data centre and develop its capacity outside Kuala Lumpur. This was communicated to Anwar by Microsoft Asia president Ahmad Mazhari.
Tengku Zafrul said efforts have been made to establish a sustainable Asia-Pacific supply chain via Putrajaya Vision 2040.
“Apec ministers extensively discussed multidirectional or multilateral trading systems, as well as the concept of cross-cutting digital economic sustainability and resilience.
“The foreign minister and I shared about Malaysia’s efforts to enhance regional integration through cooperation among Apec members, particularly in the economic field.
“We emphasised the importance of ensuring regional economic stability and encouraged all Apec economies to double their efforts to achieve the Putrajaya Vision 2040,” he said.
Private equity firm TPG founding partner James Coulter also paid a courtesy call on Anwar.
TPG has so far invested RM13.8 billion in Malaysia in the healthcare, education and consumer business sectors.
Through one-on-one sessions, Malaysia has secured RM54.72 billion in investments for the country. – The Vibes, November 18, 2023
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