Posted on 29 May 2012
After the investment committee meeting with the Performance and Management Delivery Unit yesterday in Putrajaya, International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed (pic) told reporters that even after taking into account the slowdown in China and the eurozone crisis, the country is still targeting 5% to 6% growth.
He said that during the period of 2010 to 2011, a total of 1,435 manufacturing projects had started production. There were 698 projects from 2010 and 737 in 2011.
“These projects created a total of 137,232 job opportunities; 54962 in 2010 and 82,270 in 2011. Of these, 63% or 87,002 were in skilled manpower such as managerial, supervisory and technical and skilled manpower positions,” said Mustapa.
Selangor, Johor and Penang were the preferred locations for the manufacturing sector, with Selangor taking up some 38,739 jobs, Johor was the second at 28,421 jobs and 24,473 in Penang.
There were 16,971 job opportunities in the technical category that were created, of which 79% requires engineering qualification, which contributes to the nation’s efforts to move into a high economy,” said Mustapa.
Not surprisingly, the bulk of these new job opportunities were in the electrical and electronics (E&E) sectors, contributing 38% out of the 137,232 jobs.
Companies which were the major contributors to the high employment in the E&E sector were Freescale Semiconductor Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Hitachi Global and First Solar Malaysia Sdn Bhd.
For the period of 2009 to 2011, a total of 1,794 manufacturing projects were implemented in Malaysia, with investments of RM65.6bil. These projects have created 173,542 employment opportunities.
Among the projects implemented were the expansion and diversification projects by Jabil Circuit Sdn Bhd, Nippon Electric Glass and Freescale Semiconductor, Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Bhd, Perusahaan Otomobil Sdn Bhd and CTRM Aerocomposites Sdn Bhd.
“Foreign direct investments in Malaysia last year amounted to RM36.6bil, and we are targeting a figure around that for this year,” said Mustapa.
Last year a total of RM17.3bil or 43% were from Asia, particularly Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The US contributed RM10.5bil or 26% while Europe contributed RM8.7bil or 22%.
In terms of location, the top five states were Selangor (RM16bil), Johor (RM12.8bil), Penang (RM11.9bi), Negri Sembilan (RM6.2bil) and Sarawak (RM4.4.bil).
