KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia recorded RM109.8 billion worth of investments in the manufacturing, services and primary sectors for the first nine months of this year, said the International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti).
The manufacturing sector contributed RM65.3 billion or 59.5%, followed by services (RM42.8 billion or 39.0%) and primary sector (RM1.7 billion or 1.5%), it said.
“These investments involved 2,935 projects and will create 64,701 job opportunities in Malaysia,” the ministry said in a statement today.
Of the total investments approved, domestic direct investments (DDI) accounted for 61.2%, or RM67.2 billion, while foreign direct investments (FDI) made up the rest.
Miti said the top five sources of approved FDI for the three sectors were China (RM17.0 billion), Singapore (RM8.0 billion), the US (RM2.8 billion), Switzerland (RM2.8 billion) and the Netherlands (RM2.4 billion).
Senior Minister (Economy) Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said the government, through the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida), looks forward to leveraging competitive incentives in Budget 2021 to scout and entice more investors, both local and foreign, to capitalise on opportunities in Malaysia.
"We are confident that investors will derive value by tapping on Malaysia’s well-established local supporting industry network and talented workforce to undertake high-tech products manufacturing and high value-added services. This is to cater to their clients in the region, in the present and the future,” he said.
On approved projects by state, Miti said Selangor, Sarawak, Sabah, Kuala Lumpur and Penang contributed RM76.8 billion, or 69.9%, to total approved investments for January to September this year.
In the manufacturing sector, 740 projects worth RM65.3 billion were approved in the nine-month period from 669 projects valued at RM56.0 billion in the corresponding period of 2019.
MITI said this represented a 16.6% increase in capital investments and the projects will create 51,172 jobs opportunities.
These were mainly in the petroleum products including petrochemicals (RM15.0 billion), basic metal products (RM14.5 billion), electrical and electronics (RM7.7 billion), machinery and equipment (RM5.8 billion), chemicals and chemical products (RM4.5 billion), food manufacturing (RM3.0 billion), transport equipment (RM3.0 billion) and scientific and measuring equipment (RM2.1 billion) sectors.
Compared with the corresponding period last year, DDI in the manufacturing sector saw a leap of 45.5% to RM25.9 billion while the value of approved FDI increased by 3.2% to RM39.4 billion.
"The leading sources of FDI for the period of January to September 2020 were China, Singapore, Switzerland, the US, the Netherlands, Thailand, Japan and South Korea. These accounted for 91.4% or RM36.0 billion of the total FDI approved in the manufacturing sector," he said.
As for the services sector, Miti said it recorded 2,180 approved projects with investments of RM42.8 billion in the January-September period. These services projects are expected to create 13,390 jobs to the economy.
Miti said DDI led the total approved investments in the services sector, contributing RM40.6 billion (94.9%) while FDI represented RM2.2 billion.
"The majority of the main services sub-sectors showed a significant decline in approved investments except for support services, MSC status projects and other services such as BioNexus status and software developments.
"The top five contributors were real estate (RM23.7 billion), utilities (RM7.2 billion), support services (RM4.0 billion), telecommunications (RM2.6 billion) and financial services (RM2.1 billion)," the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the primary sector – comprising the mining, agriculture, and plantation and commodities sub-sectors – attracted investments worth RM1.7 billion.
Miti said FDI dominated total approved investments in the sector, recording RM1.0 billion (58.8%) while DDI accounted for RM653.2 million or 41.2%. – Bernama, December 1, 2020
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