KUALA LUMPUR: The government, through the Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry (MITI), and the Malaysian Investment Development Board (MIDA), are constantly working on improving strategies and approaches to strengthen the country's ecosystem and investment facilitation.
Investment, Trade and Industry Minister, Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said this is to ensure the strategies and approaches are more competitive and conducive in increasing quality and high impact Domestic Direct Investment (DDI) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
"Therefore, MITI, through MIDA has implemented a focused approach to ensure the promotion of foreign and domestic investment covers quality, value-added and high-tech projects to complete the ecosystem and supply chain of the industries targeted by the country," he told the Dewan Negara today (June 19).
He was responding to a question from Senator Tan Sri Low Kian Chuan on the DDI target for this year compared with FDI.
Tengku Zafrul said last year, a total of RM267.8 billion in investment from 4,517 approved projects in various economic sectors – main sectors, manufacturing and services, in Malaysia would generate 140,440 job opportunities with domestic investment contributing RM104.4 billion, or 38.9 per cent, of the total amount.
"I like to share that for the first quarter of this year, Malaysia has attracted investment commitments amounting to RM74.1 billion, which is a 60 per cent increase year-on-year.
"Most notably, the ratio of FDI to DDI is almost 50:50, which is 52.5 per cent for FDI and 47.5 per cent for DDI," he said.
He said this clearly reflected the confidence of local companies and businesses in the current government policy.
"As of May 31, this year, there are 743 projects in the negotiation or evaluation stage with a total proposed investment of RM50.6 billion with DDI amounting to RM8 billion or 15.7 per cent while FDI amounting to RM42.7 billion or 84.3 per cent," he said.
He said the total investment included projects from the manufacturing sector with a proposed investment of RM37.5 billion involving 61 proposed projects.
The minister said as of June 2, this year, MITI through MIDA has successfully secured FDI commitments totalling RM23.07 billion through an investment mission to Japan, RM170 billion through an investment mission to China, RM24 billion through an investment mission to South Korea and RM13 billion through an investment mission to Singapore.
Meanwhile, in response to Low's question on the government's measures to stimulate micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) investment, he said MIDA, as the country's main investment promotion agency, has provided several programmes, including incentives in the form of tax incentives and grants to domestic companies.
He said this included offering tax incentives to domestic companies that implement projects promoted under the Promotion Of Investment Act (PIA) 1986, increasing the capacity of local investors through the Industry4WRD Intervention Fund for SMEs, encouraging the use of automation among companies in the manufacturing and service sectors through the Automation Capital Allowance (Automation CA) and organising the MIDA Invest Series Conference to identify investment potentials of each state.
Besides that, he said the government also welcomes the proposal to set DDI as one of the key performance indicators or KPIs for the nation's investment performance.
"It is the government's policy at the moment to balance both foreign and domestic investment to stimulate growth and improve our balanced development across the country.
"MITI through MIDA will continue to enhance cooperation with agencies at federal and state level in an effort to attract domestic investment, especially in targeted industries," he said in response to a supplementary question from Low on whether the government would set DDI as a KPI. – Bernama