Malaysia has recorded a total of RM37.4 billion worth of approved investments in the manufacturing, services and primary sectors in the first quarter this year.
RM26.3 billion (70.4 percent) of the total investments was contributed by domestic investments (DDI) while RM 11.1 billion (29.6 percent) came from foreign sources (FDI).
Switzerland (RM2.7 billion), Singapore (RM2.1 billion), the United States of America (RM2.0 billion), China (RM1.4 billion) and Japan (RM0.9 billion) were the top five sources of FDI.
According to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the manufacturing sector was the largest contributor to the value of approved investments amounting to RM25.2 billion, followed by the services sector (RM11.9 billion) and the primary sector (RM0.3 billion).
“These investments involved 892 projects and will create over 19,100 jobs for the country. For approved projects by state, the five major states namely Sabah, Penang, Selangor, Johor and W.P. Kuala Lumpur, contributed RM30.0 billion (80.1 %) to the total approved investments for January to March 2020,” said senior minister and minister of international trade and industry, Mohamed Azmin Ali.
A total of 176 manufacturing projects or 82.2 per cent will be located in Selangor, Johor, Pulau Pinang, Kedah and Perak. In terms of the value of investments, Sabah (RM11.7 billion) was the largest recipient of investments in the manufacturing sector for the period of January to March 2020, followed by Pulau Pinang (RM7.1 billion), Johor (RM1.6 billion), Selangor (RM1.5 billion) and Kedah (RM1.1 billion).
These five states constituted 91.1 per cent or RM23.0 billion of total approved investments in the sector and will generate more than 12,300 jobs.
The minister further added that the coronavirus and the impact caused by the outbreak have caused investors to reconsider their busines strategies and postpone investment decisions.
“We may not be able to reach the pre-Covid-19 crisis level of investments this year. However, we will not stop to be aggressive in our promotional efforts to retain and attract more foreign and domestic investments to revive the economy,” he said.
The services sector contributed 75 percent to the total approved projects in 1Q 2020 involving 669 services projects that will add over 3,400 new jobs to the economy. Of the total, domestic investments represented 97.5 percent or RM11.6 billion, while foreign investments accounted for 2.5 percent or RM0.3 billion.
The support services industry, which covers sub-sectors such as integrated logistics, research and development, green technology, integrated circuit design, oil and gas services and licenced warehouse recorded an investment of RM1.6 billion, an increase of 178.5 per cent compared to 1Q 2019 (RM559.0 million)
The increase was attributed to the surge in green technology activities and integrated logistics services which registered a rise of 213.8 percent and 165.4 percent respectively.
Additionally, between January and March 2020, approved investments in the primary sector amounted to RM281.3 million or 0.8 per cent of total approved investments in various economic sectors. Investments by foreign sources led the majority of investments in this sector totalling RM144.4 million, while domestic investments contributed RM136.9 million.
As of June 2020, MIDA has a total of 726 projects with proposed investments of RM36.7 billion in the pipeline for the manufacturing, services and primary sectors.
