KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) expects 60,181 jobs opportunities for Malaysia with the new approved direct investments totalling RM80.2bil in the January-June period of this year.
It said on Monday the investments in the services, manufacturing and primary sectors increased by 17.7% from RM68.2bil in the previous corresponding period. The investments were from 2,346 projects.
Despite rising competition and a challenging external environment, Malaysia remains a competitive investment location for foreign investors.
“Foreign investments increased by 35.3% to RM26.5bil in the first half of 2018 (H1 2018) from RM19.6bil in the same period last year. The increases in foreign investments were mainly seen in the manufacturing and primary sectors.
“Meanwhile, domestic investments led with RM53.7bil, contributing 67% to the total approved investments in all three sectors. The performance of the domestic investments also saw a rise of 10.5% from RM48.6billion in the same period last year,” MIDA said.
Services sector
The services sector continued to account for the largest share of approved investments, contributing 63.5% or RM50.9 billion. A total of 2,025 projects were approved and will create more than 33,970 job opportunities, the largest potential employer in the economy.
Around 89% of these jobs will be in the distributive trade, education, MSC status and healthcare sub sectors.
Domestic investments made up the largest portion, recording RM44.9 billion or 83.6% of the total approved investments for the services sector during this period. The rest or RM6.0 billion were from foreign sources.
Manufacturing sector
Malaysia’s manufacturing sector remains resilient and recorded approved investments of RM20.2bil from 287 manufacturing projects for the first half of 2018 as compared to RM16.7bil from 299 manufacturing projects in the same period last year.
The increase of 21.2% in terms of the value of investments is an indication that capital-intensive projects are dominating Malaysia’s manufacturing landscape.
The approved manufacturing projects will create 25,165 job opportunities. The jobs created include 530 electrical and electronics engineers, 607 mechanical engineers and 85 chemical engineers.
In addition, the approved manufacturing projects will also require about 1,742 skilled craftsmen such as plant maintenance supervisors, tools and die makers, machinists, IT personnel, quality controllers, electricians and welders.
For 1H 2018, foreign investments in approved manufacturing projects rose by 63.1% to RM15.2bil from RM9.3bil in the corresponding period last year.
The increase reflects the country's competitiveness as a location of choice for investments. China accounted for RM6.5bil or 43% of the total foreign investments, followed by Korea (16%), Japan (10%), Singapore (5%) and France (4%).
Primary sector
The primary sector contributed RM9.1bil or 11.3% to the total approved projects in the first half of 2018.
The mining subsector continued to lead with approved investments of RM8.8 bil, followed by plantation and commodities with RM311.8mil and agriculture with RM38.7mil.
These investments are expected to create 1,039 job opportunities. The mining subsector was dominated by oil and gas exploration activities.
This solid performance by this subsector reflects Malaysia’s potential to be a leading hub for the oil and gas industry in the region.
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