Malaysia’s first quarter approved investments in services, manufacturing and primary sectors recorded RM37.3 billion in the first quarter, which if implemented properly, will create 39,990 jobs in the country. The investments involve 1,271 projects this year, data released by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry showed Friday.
Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed said that despite a weaker global environment, Malaysia remains a competitive investment location for foreign investors, with an increase of 28 percent in this quarter. He further said that after taking into account the two lumpy projects approved in the first quarter of 2015, PRPC's project in Johor and LNG9’s project in Sarawak, the first quarter this year showed a decrease from RM69.8 billion. The two projects amounted to RM35.3billion.
“As a diversified economy, we believe we can withstand these challenges and overcome them, especially with the continued inflow of foreign investments into the country. We are definitely doubling our efforts in achieving the country’s investment target,” the Minister said.
Further, the services sector attracted RM27.6 billion of approved investments in the first quarter of 2016. A total of 1,088 services projects were approved creating 20,200 employment opportunities, the largest potential employer in the economy. The increased investments from regional and international retailers have boosted Malaysia’s ranking to 3rd position in the 2016 Global Retail Development Index (GRDI).
Malaysia has also managed to acquire a fair deal of investments in the education sector that compliments the government’s efforts to provide quality education to the people of the country.
For the education sub-sector, the increase of 672.7 percent of foreign investments from RM19.3 million in Q1 2015 to RM149.2 million in Q1 2016 reflects Malaysia’s success in accelerating the process in making the country a regional education hub of excellence.
Regardless of a lower investment value in the first quarter of 2016, the E&E industry emerged as the main contributor to the total approved investments in the manufacturing sector compared to the corresponding period last year. High quality projects in E&E are concentrated in solar, fabricated wafers and semiconductor devices, the ministry said.
However, Malaysia continued to witness lower investment in the primary sector due to the ongoing challenges in global crude oil. Investments in this sector recorded a total of RM874.9 million in the first quarter of 2016. The mining subsector led with approved investments of RM692.2 million, mainly from oil and gas exploration activities.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com