From January to June 2020, the nation’s services sectors recorded 1,316 approved projects with investments of RM28.6 billion.
These approved services projects in the first six months of 2020 are expected to create 10,114 jobs to the economy.
Majority of the main services sub-sectors showed a significant decline in approved investments except for support services and MSC status projects. The top five contributors of approved investments in the services sector were real estate (RM12.2 billion), utilities (RM9.4 billion), support services (RM2.4 billion), financial services (RM1.8 billion) and telecommunications (RM1.3 billion).
The support services industry under the purview of MIDA covered sub-sectors such as integrated logistics, research and development, green technology, integrated circuit design, oil and gas services and licenced warehouse.
In the first half of 2020, approved investments in the support services industry saw an increase of 18.5 percent compared to the corresponding period in 2019 due to the surge of projects in the integrated logistics services and green technology sub-sectors that recorded increases of 172.1 per cent and 7.0 per cent, respectively. In addition to providing over 3,249 new jobs, these investments will also create spin-off benefits for other local businesses, further strengthening Malaysia’s industrial network.
In January – June 2020, the primary sector attracted investments worth RM 471.0 million. This sector comprises three main sub-sectors namely mining, agriculture and; plantation and commodities. All approved investments in this sector for the period is from domestic sources.
The mining sub-sector took the lead with approved investments of RM468.5 million in six projects, followed by the plantation and commodities sub-sector with investments of RM2.5 million.
“While foreign investments assume an essential role in the development of the country, greater emphasis is being put in place to drive domestic investments and turning more domestic companies into global players. We will continue to prioritise the acceleration of technology adoption in all segments of the economy by harnessing the potential of Industry 4.0 to boost Malaysia’s productivity and competitiveness.” said Mohamed Azmin Ali, Senior Minister and Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI).
“Ensuring business continuity and growth will be a priority with business activities resuming back to normal levels. The Government, through PENJANA, will continue to enable our investors to implement their projects in Malaysia efficiently and effectively by easing bureaucratic processes, especially during this time.
The Project Acceleration and Coordination Unit (PACU) has been established in MIDA to facilitate the approval of businesses particularly manufacturing and related services and to ensure that the
implementation of approved projects are successful within 24 months.
As of July 2020, MIDA has a total of 732 projects with proposed investments of RM35.9 billion in the pipeline for the manufacturing, services and primary sectors.
