Malaysia Continues to Remain an Optimistic Investment Destination Among Investors
The outlook for Malaysia’s economy is still looking good, despite recent uncertainties surrounding the global economy and recent issues related to the US-China trade talks.
Despite the challenges, Malaysia’s economy experienced a growth in Q1 of 2019, with a 127% rise in approved investments. The sectors involved included the services sector, primary and manufacturing sector. Malaysia continues to remain an optimistic investment destination after it successfully drew in RM53.9 billion in total for these approved investments.
In addition, foreign investments also increased to 73.4% from the previous first quarter in 2018. Out of that total, domestic investments contributed to 45.6% of the total in Q1 of 2019. Manufacturing continues to be the sector which contributes the most in terms of its contribution towards potential employment, providing 55.7% of the available job opportunities. The services sector comes in second place at 43.7%, while the primary sector contributes to 0.6% of the opportunities for employment in Malaysia.
Contributions Made by Malaysia’s Manufacturing Sector
This sector is one of Malaysia’s most resilient. Once again, it proved just how resilient it could be with an outstanding total of RM25.4 billion in approved investments for just Q1 of 2019 alone. With the approval of these projects, it is estimated 22,970 new employment opportunities are going to come out of this venture.
In 2019 alone, within the months of January to March, the amount of foreign investment increased by 127% in approved projects for the manufacturing sector. This is a reflection on how Malaysia’s economy continues to remain competitive, and a prime location for investments despite the challenges it faces. The two most notable investment projects stemmed from US companies Jabil Circuit and Micron Technology.
Contributions Made by Malaysia’s Services Sector
2019’s Q1 saw Malaysia’s services sector bring in the biggest portion in approved investments. At 1,445 projects approved, the total investments from this alone amounts to RM26.1 billion, the bulk of which originates from domestic sources.
Real estate, distributive trade, utility, hotel and tourism and support services are the ones who drew the highest number of total investments respectively. As for employment opportunities, approximately 95.8% is going to be mainly in distributive trade, education and the tourism and hotel sub-sectors. There’s potential for employment opportunities in both small and larger organisations.
Contributions Made by Malaysia’s Primary Sector
Most of the investment contributions in this sector comes from domestic sources, which accounts for 58.3%. Foreign investment contributions here amount to 41.7%. Dominated mostly by activities related to oil and gas exploration, other strong performers in this sub-sector include plantation, commodities and agriculture. Plantation and commodities were the next strongest performers after oil and gas.
For more information about Malaysia’s manufacturing, services and primary sector’s performance, visit the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA)’s website here.
