KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has approved RM61.6 billion in investments for foreign and domestic direct investments in the first eight months of the 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 (FDIs) alone accounted for RM43.8 billion versus RM24.4 billion, previously,” he said.
Currently, the top three foreign direct investors in Malaysia are China, Indonesia and tge Netherlands.
“As for domestic direct investment, we have approved of RM17.8 billion, an increment from last year’s RM16 billion,” Ong said in his keynote address at the Affin-Hwang Capital Conference Series 2018 here today.
He noted that the approved investments so far involved 411 projects with the potential to create over 34,000 jobs nationwide, mainly in the oil and gas, chemical products and electrical and electronics sectors.
On the ongoing US-China trade tensions, he said Malaysia is an attractive investment destination for companies from China following the trade tariffs imposed by the US.
He, however, said the ministry would be selective in investment approvals.
“We say ‘no’ to setting up of mere assembly lines. We say ‘no’ to manufacturing investments that leads to bad pollution. We say ‘yes’ to high skill job creation. We say ‘yes’ to relevant technological transfer that local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can leverage on.
“We want to attract more investments that can be part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution framework and propel our SMEs in the global supply chain,” he added.