Malaysia attracted a total of RM139.3 billion worth of investments in the manufacturing, services and primary sectors for the first nine months of 2018. This was an 18% increase from the RM118.1 billion approved in the same period last year. The total investments approved in January-September 2018 were from 3,243 projects and are expected to generate 93,379 job opportunities for Malaysia.
Approved foreign direct investments (FDI) increased by 109.7% to RM64.1 billion in January-September 2018 from RM30.5 billion in the same period last year. This was mainly driven by the manufacturing sector which recorded a strong increase of 249.4% in January-September 2018. Approved FDI in the primary sector also rose by 99.3%. This indicates that investor confidence in Malaysia remains high despite the challenging global economic environment. Meanwhile, domestic investments led with RM75.2 billion, contributing 54% to the total approved investments in all three sectors.
Manufacturing Sector
Malaysia continues to be a competitive location for manufacturing projects. A total of 468 projects worth RM59.1 billion were approved in January-September 2018 compared with RM34.6 billion in 463 projects in the corresponding period of 2017, representing an increase of 70.5% in capital investments.
Foreign investments approved in the manufacturing sector recorded a total of RM48.8 billion for January-September 2018, a rise of 249.4% from RM13.9 billion in the same period last year. China accounted for RM15.6 billion or 32% of total foreign investments, followed by Indonesia (18.4%), the Netherlands (17%), US (6.3%), Korea (4.9%) and Japan (4.3%).
Notable investments include a new manufacturing project from Leaf Malaysia OpCo, a US based company that will be setting up a facility in Johor to convert plant-based biomass into fermentable sugars.
“The first plant is expected to begin operations in 2021 and will create 60 job opportunities for highly skilled local workforce. Our 2G biomass products have a wide range of applications for domestic and export markets, including energy, fuels, bio-plastics and high value specialty chemicals. We have also identified a strategic local partner for our Johor BioHub operations,” said Leaf Malaysia’s Managing Director, Jason Jones.
English
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Japanese
Korean