Kuala Lumpur, 18 January 2022- The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) kickstarted their 2022 to build relationships in appreciating partners and stakeholders' contribution towards MIDA in 2021. During their annual media appreciation and networking event, YBhg. Dato' Arham Abdul Rahman, Chief Executive Officer of MIDA, thanked the unwavering commitment and support from the media team in helping MIDA highlight Malaysia's potential as an investment destination in 2021 and shared a brief insight into the organisation's theme for this year, "Rebuilding a sustainable economy through quality investment and strategic investment supply chain development in 2022".
The Government, via MIDA, remains focused on attracting high-quality investments from foreign and domestic companies into Malaysia through various investment strategies and policy initiatives amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
From January to September 2021, Malaysia attracted RM177.8 billion approved investments in the manufacturing, services and primary sectors and generated 79,899 job opportunities. Within the first nine months of 2021, foreign direct investments (FDI) contributed RM106.1 billion, accounting for nearly 60 per cent of the total approved investments. The remainder, 40.3per cent or RM71.7 billion, were channelled from domestic direct investments (DDI), thanks to the existing and new aspiring local companies meeting the growing industrial needs of different MNCs.
Many Fortune 500 and local companies made pivotal decisions to leverage Malaysia's role as a strategic supply chain hub with cost advantages and pro-business policies, a friendly economic environment and ASEAN trade and bilateral relations.
MIDA has consistently explored avenues to enhance its business processes, delivery and facilitation to further increase efficiency in supporting investors. Among the major initiatives undertaken by the Government to improve Malaysia's investment environment include:-
a. One-Stop-Centre (OSC) Facilities
To facilitate the movement of short-term business travellers during the pandemic.
b. The Digital Investment Office (DIO)
A fully digital collaborative platform between MIDA and the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) to spur the charge towards facilitating digital investments in Malaysia.
c. InvestMalaysia
A single gateway portal for approval of investment projects.
d. MIDA's Project Acceleration and Coordination Unit (PACU)
End-to-end facilitation to all approved projects in the country, enabling speedy and efficient implementation.
e. MIDA Assessment Development Centre (MADC)
A collaboration initiative known as HyTalent Programme; a synergised effort between three (3) premier local universities that offer up-skilling and re-skilling programmes to local graduates and talented individuals to make them career and industry-ready.
f. The Intervention Fund (IF) and Smart Automation Grant (SAG)
To facilitate our local players' technical competencies.
YBhg. Dato' Arham Abdul Rahman shared, "We focused on accelerating the adoption and adaptation of digitalisation to transition brick and mortar hubs into "smart factories" to enhance flexibility and optimise productivity and growth remotely. We strive to ensure that Malaysia remains welcoming of investors by rolling out several game-changing measures to ease the challenges of operating businesses in the country while encouraging and facilitating the adoption of technology, innovation and research by companies. Looking towards 2022, MIDA encourages companies to accelerate the adoption of digitalisation and intensify research and development (R&D) activities to discover new technologies".
Malaysia also focuses on pursuing more high quality, capital-intensive projects and those that support the sustainable development agenda of the nation. Aligning to the Shared Prosperity Vision (SPV) 2030 and the Twelfth Malaysia Plan (RMK12), the country has been securing new investments that align well with Malaysia's National Investment Aspirations (NIA) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles. The NIA is expected to propel Malaysia's long-term growth through the flow of sustainable quality investment in new and complex growth areas.
To reflect this, MIDA has lined up targetted trade and investment missions (TIM) and Specific project Missions (SPM) to capture investments in high technology, innovation and research-driven industries that will complement the Malaysian industrial ecosystem. MIDA has a pipeline of 477 projects with proposed investments of RM33.3 billion in the manufacturing and services sectors within MIDA's purview. These include aerospace, electronic vehicles, machinery and equipment, IC design, advanced electronics; advanced materials; fine chemicals; renewable energy such as photovoltaic; optics and photonics; display technology; petrochemical; pharmaceutical, medical devices, etc. food security.
“As the coordinating central investment promotion agency and a one-stop centre for potential investments, we look forward to working collaboratively with the relevant investment promotion agencies to harness the competitive strengths of every state within Malaysia.” added Dato’ Arham.
