Posted on 20 Aug 2015
Malaysia registered total investments worth RM113.5 billion for the first six months of 2015, representing a RM1.5 billion or 1.34% increase compared with RM112.0 billion in the same period last year.
"We think second half is going to be a bit more challenging, it (full year) will be somewhere around last year's number," Minister of International Trade & Industry Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said in a media briefing to announce the first-half investments performance.
Last year's total approved investments stood at RM235.9 billion. Mida had targeted to attract investments worth at least RM56 billion and RM64.5 billion for the manufacturing and services sectors this year.
For the first half this year, the country's approved investment continued to be led by the services sector, growing 4.93% to RM61.7 billion against RM58.8 billion in the previous corresponding period. The services sector accounted for 54.4% of total investments.
Investments in the manufacturing sector jumped 14.85% from RM43.1 billion to RM49.5 billion.
The primary sector however, saw investments dive 77.23% from RM10.1 billion to RM2.3 billion, due to lower investments in the upstream oil and gas activities. The primary sector consists of agriculture, mining, plantation and commodities.
The total investments approved comprised 2,487 projects, with some 101,780 job generation opportunities.
As at June 2015, Mida had 299 projects in the pipeline with investments worth RM21.8 billion, of which RM13.8 billion and RM8.0 billion for the manufacturing and services sectors respectively.
These projects are mainly in food manufacturing, transport technology, chemicals and advanced materials, electronic and electrical, healthcare, education and hospitality.
Mustapa also noted that foreign direct investments (FDIs) was lower at RM21.3 billion for the first six months of 2015, compared with RM36.6 billion over the same period last year.
FDIs only made up 18.9% of total private investments in the first half of 2015, which were much lower than 32.6% in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, commenting on the weakening ringgit, he said it could encourage the businesses to source more components in the local market in the medium- to longer-term even though it will put pressure on the businesses in the near-term.
"It is more attractive now to source components from Malaysia, we're confident that there will be some switching," he opined.
