SHAH ALAM: The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) is confident that it can maintain the momentum of investments coming into the country this year despite the global economic volatility.
This was because Malaysia had a long history of industrial development which had resulted in a solid network of investor-friendly soft and hard infrastructure, said Mida chief executive officer Datuk Azman Mahmud.
“Malaysia embarked on investment promotions many years ago. Starting from 1970s, we have had phases of industrial development, from assembly to engineering and export to research and development and innovation.
“It has taken a long time to come to this stage. So, along the way, we have developed a strong ecosystem of infrastructure, talent pool, research institutions, legal system, banking system, connectivity and international markets. All these are factors that most investors look at,” he said.
Malaysia’s good relations with countries from the various parts of the world and its free trade agreements (FTAs) also scored high points with investors.
Azman said with Malaysia’s FTAs with the European Union, the Trans Pacific Partnership and Asean Economic Community, as well as Asean FTAs with China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Chile, investors in Malaysia could expand their export market to reach more than three billion people.
He was speaking after the opening of Oncogen Pharma (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd facility, here, yesterday.
On the volatility of the world markets, he took a philosophical view of the matter.
“The volatility is beyond anybody’s control. So we will try our best to attract investments, bearing in mind that our fundamentals are very strong. Our projected growth this year is more than four per cent and we are seeing investors who have confidence in the country.
“I don’t see any strong downward trend, but there are challenges, and we will try our best to sustain the momentum of industrial investments.”
He added that there were many deals in the pipeline and the investment agency was not seeing any slowdown in interest to invest here.
“There is a lot of volatility out there and many people in the business community are trying to understand and adjust accordingly.”
For the first nine months of last year, Malaysia saw RM153.2 billion in approved investments.
The 2015 full-year figures will be announced on February 29.
In 2014, total approved investments stood at RM235.9 billion.