KUALA LUMPUR (June 9) : Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) said today it has approved RM80.6 billion worth of investments in the manufacturing, services and primary sectors in the first quarter (1Q), a surge of 95.6% from RM41.2 billion a year ago
MIDA said in a statement, these approved investments involved 993 projects and are expected to generate 32,557 job opportunities.
According to MIDA, the total approved foreign direct investments (FDI) in the manufacturing, services and primary sectors soared 383% to RM54.9 billion in 1Q from RM11.4 billion a year ago.
The top five sources of FDI are Singapore (RM43.1 billion), the Netherlands (RM5 billion), South Korea (RM4.3billion), Chinese Taipei (RM500 million) and Hong Kong (RM300 million).
Meanwhile, domestic direct investments (DDI) made up the rest of RM25.7 billion, contributing 31.9% to the total approved investments in all the three sectors.
Kedah, Selangor, Sarawak, Sabah and Kuala Lumpur contributed RM68.4 billion (84.9%) to the quarterly approved investments.
According to MIDA, the manufacturing sector is the biggest contributor, recording RM58.8 billion, followed by the services sector at RM15.6 billion and the primary sector at RM6.2 billion.
It said the growth in investment in 1Q was driven by the robust performance of the manufacturing sector that soared 126.8% compared with a year ago.
The manufacturing sector recorded approved investments of RM58.8 billion from 246 manufacturing projects for 1Q compared with RM25.9 billion from 226 manufacturing projects in the previous corresponding quarter.
The majority of these investments were in the electrical and electronics (E&E) (RM47 billion), fabricated metal products (RM4.9 billion), rubber products (RM3.3 billion), chemicals and chemical products (RM1.1 billion), transport equipment (RM500 million), food manufacturing (RM400 million), machinery and equipment (RM400 million) as well as paper, printing and publishing (RM200 million).
In terms of recipients of approved investments in the manufacturing sector, MIDA said Kedah registered the highest level of investments with RM42.4 billion, followed by Sabah (RM4.3 billion), Selangor (RM4 billion), Melaka (RM3.4 billion), and Johor (RM1.7 billion).
It also said, the leading sources of foreign investments in the manufacturing sector were Singapore, South Korea, the Netherlands, Chinese Taipei, China, the US, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany and Hong Kong.
The service sector, on the other hand, contributed 74.2% or 737 of the total number of approved projects in 1Q.
According to MIDA, domestic investments made up the largest portion, recording RM15 billion or 96.2% of the total approved investments for the services sector during the period. The remaining 3.8% was from foreign sources.
Overall, the total investments approved in the services sector recorded an increase of 3.5% compared with last year.
Collectively, the leading contributors include real estate (RM8.9 billion), financial services (RM2.7 billion), utility (RM2 billion), support services (RM1.2 billion) and distributive trade (RM500 million).
The approved investments in the primary sector, meanwhile, surged to RM6.2 billion in the 1Q, from RM200 million a year ago.
MIDA said, investments from domestic sources continue to dominate with a total amount of RM4.2 billion or 67.7%, while foreign investments contributed RM2 billion or 32.3%.
The primary sector was led by the mining sub sector with approved investments of RM6.1 billion, it said.
Source: https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/mida-approved-rm806-bil-investment-1q-including-rm549-bil-fdi
