KUALA LUMPUR - The outlook for investment flows into Malaysia remains strong, given robust performance in the first nine months this year that saw RM136.9 billion approved investments for 3,908 projects.

This represents growth of 26 per cent year-on-year. "At RM136.9 billion, we have exceeded last year's performance," said Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) chief executive officer Datuk Noharuddin Nordin during the January-September 2013 Investment performance briefing, here, yesterday. "We should be able to sustain the 26 per cent growth for the year. Although already at the end of the year, we still have more in the pipeline as there are companies, which had submitted paperwork for investments earlier, which have yet to be approved," he added. The services sector continues to lead with approved investments of RM83.4 billion, up 60.9 per cent, followed by manufacturing and primary sectors at RM35.1 billion (25.6 per cent) and RM18.4 billion (13.5 per cent), respectively.

Domestic investment totalled at RM94.1 billion, up 68.7 per cent of the total approved investments, while foreign investments stood at RM42.8 billion (31.3 per cent). Singapore remains Malaysia's second biggest foreign direct investment contributor at RM3.7 billion, while the United States holds the lion's share at RM5.7 billion. As expected, a huge chunk of Singapore's investment totalling RM1.9 billion was in Johor, where Iskandar Malaysia remains an attractive investment destination. "We see the Singapore trend of investing in Johor to remain in 2014 even with the change of working days from Sundays to Thursdays," said Noharuddin. "Singapore is not terribly far away and given Iskandar's prominence as an investment hub, companies will adjust the way they operate, and with today's technology of smartphones and video linking, it is doable. It will not directly affect Singapore FDIs into Johor," he said. Mida has also approved seven project proposals that aim to make Malaysia their global operations hubs, with the collective investment value of RM8.8 billion. "These are the kind of investments we are targeting as Mida has looked beyond quantity but quality investments like value-added activities, which have significant spin-off effects on the economy," said Noharuddin.

By malaysia-chronicle.com

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