MITI: RM6 bil investments approved in less developed area up to Sept
09 Nov 2020
The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said 20 projects under the Less Developed Area Incentive (LDA Incentive) had been approved up to September this year, racking up a total investment of RM6.0 billion.
It said these projects were expected to create 3,289 jobs for local residents and subsequently improve the local economic situation.
“They (projects) will also encourage the development of infrastructure and logistics, as well as increasing joint-ventures of local and foreign companies for industrial development and technology transfer, besides encouraging downstream activities to produce high value-added products,” said the ministry in a written reply to the Dewan Rakyat here today.
MITI was replying to a question from Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan (BN-Pontian), who asked the ministry to state the efforts and incentives to open new industrial areas in rural areas and provide evidence and successful examples and the number of job opportunities created for the local people.
In this regard, MITI through the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) has offered an LDA Incentive in attracting investments such as 100 per cent income tax exemption for 15 years (5 + 5 + 5) starting from the year the company generates statutory income, or income tax exemption equivalent to tax allowance, which is an investment of 100% of eligible capital expenditure incurred for a period of 10 years (5 + 5).
“This allowance is allowed to be deducted up to 100% of the statutory income for each year of assessment,” said MITI.
The ministry also provides stamp duty exemption on instruments of transfer agreement or lease of land or buildings used for development.
Other incentives include withholding tax exemption on royalties and technical fees on payments to non-residents no later than Dec 31, 2020, and exemption from import duty and sales tax on raw materials, components, machinery, equipment, spare parts, and consumables that are not manufactured domestically and used directly in production, subject to current policies at MIDA.
In addition, MITI through MIDA works closely with the state governments and related agencies to double their investment promotional efforts including with the authorities of corridors such as the East Coast Economic Region (Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang) and the Northern Corridor Economic Region (Perak, Kedah and Perlis).
“This close cooperation has succeeded in bringing investment into the rural areas.
“For the January to September 2020 period, a total of RM70.5 billion investment has been approved in the manufacturing sector through 740 projects, which are expected to generate 51,172 job opportunities,” according to MITI.
The ministry said out of this total, among the states that recorded the highest number of approved investments and job opportunities was Sarawak with investments of RM15.8 billion and 6,006 job opportunities.
This is followed by Sabah with RM11.9 billion investments (579 jobs), Penang RM10.6 billion (9,137 jobs), Pahang RM8.3 billion (1,416 jobs), Selangor RM7.3 billion (12,195 jobs) and Johor RM5.7 billion (10,107 jobs).
Source: Bernama Posted on : 09 November 2020
