Approved Investments in January – September 2019 Create 93,841 Additional Jobs

For the first nine months of 2019, Malaysia recorded RM149 billion worth of approved investments in the services, manufacturing and primary sectors. This was 4.4% higher than the RM142.6 billion approved in the same period last year. These investments involved 4,025 projects and will create an additional of 93,841 job opportunities. The majority of the investments came from domestic sources, which contributed RM82.7 billion or 55.5% of the total investments. Foreign direct investments (FDI) represented 44.5% or RM66.3 billion. Total approved FDI in these three main sectors increased by 6.5% to RM66.3 billion in January-September 2019 from RM62.2 billion in the same period last year.

The services sector attracted RM85 billion in 3,299 approved projects compared with RM74.9 billion in 2,931 projects recorded in the corresponding period last year.

A notable FDI project that was approved during this period is an investment by Integrated Device Technology (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. that has evolved its presence in Pulau Pinang since 1988 through the expansion of their global operations hub to complement their supply chain management activities.

With a commitment to invest RM11.4 billion for five years, starting from YA2022, and another RM11.4 billion from YA2027, this Principal Hub will manage and support the company’s businesses globally.

A total of 671 manufacturing projects worth RM57.7 billion were approved in the first nine months of 2019 compared with 467 projects with investments of RM57.5 billion in January-September 2018. Domestic investments recorded RM18.5 billion or 32.1%, a rise of 81.7% from RM10.2 billion in the same period last year. One of the significant domestic investments approved was from a Malaysian majority-owned company, Perusahaan Automobil Nasional Berhad (PROTON) for an expansion project to manufacture and assemble energy efficient vehicle (EEV) and related equipment. The project, with investments of RM2.6 billion, will be undertaken in Tanjung Malim, Perak.

Notable foreign investments include a new manufacturing project from Smith+Nephew Incorporated, a United Kingdom based company, which will be setting up its facility in Batu Kawan Industrial Park, Pulau Pinang to produce implants for orthopaedic surgery for knees and hips.

The primary sector contributed RM6.3 billion or 4.2% of the total approved investments in January- September 2019. The mining subsector continued to lead  with approved investments of RM5.9 billion, followed by plantation and commodities with RM275.2 million and agriculture with RM135.1 million.

As of September 2019, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) is actively negotiating 682 projects with proposed investments of RM37.6 billion.These include 242 projects within the manufacturing sector (RM26.6 billion) and 440 projects in the services sector (RM11.0 billion).