RM56 bil manufacturing investments targeted for 2015

27 Feb 2015

Its minister Mustapa Mohamed said, “This modest outlook is partly because of the oil prices but also because 2014 was an exceptional year for the manufacturing sector as investments jumped 38% from RM52.1 billion the previous year.

“We have about RM65 billion worth of projects in the pipeline this year, if these all materialise then we will be able to exceed our forecast,” he commented.

Mustapa added that the RM65 billion figure still did not provide a complete picture, as there may be additional oil and gas and agriculture sector investments that the ministry via the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) is not aware of.

The country’s total investments last year reached a new high of RM235.9 billion, up 8% from RM219.4 billion in 2013, according to the Malaysia Investment Performance Report 2014 released today.

Of the total investments approved, RM171.3 billion or 72.6% were domestic direct investments (DDI), while RM64.6 billion or 27.4% were foreign direct investments (FDI).

Mustapa noted that FDI inflows into Malaysia declined 8% in tandem with global FDI inflows last year.

Global FDI inflows dropped to US$1.26 trillion after reaching US$1.36 trillion in 2013, while inflows into Malaysia decreased to RM35.1 billion in 2014 compared to RM38.2 billion the previous year.

Realised private investments, however, reached a record of RM181.5 billion, up 13.1% from RM160.5 billion previously. This puts yearly gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) above the RM148 billion average annual target at 10.9% growth set under the 10th Malaysia Plan, Mustapa noted. Annual GFCF has consistently registered double-digit growth since 2010.

In 2014, the services sector contributed 63.4% or RM149.6 billion of approved total investments. This was spread out over 5,059 projects and is expected to create 98, 540 jobs.

In terms of yearly growth however, Mustapa noted that the services sector has somewhat plateaued, rising only 1.3% from RM147.7 billion investments in 2013.

As in previous years, the real estate sub-sector continued to dominate services investments, accounting for RM88.5 billion or 59.2%, whilst utilities attracted RM9 billion or 6% of investments and distributive trade at RM8.7 billion at 5.8% of investments.