KUALA LUMPUR: The government aims to explore the potential of reverse investment (RI) in the agrofood and agriculture sectors to help enhance the sources and supply of food for the country.
Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu said that for the time being, the ministry had provided a general guideline for investors – especially private companies – interested in investing via RI abroad.
He said reverse investment required the investors involved to bring back the food produce invested in other countries to Malaysia to meet domestic needs, Bernama reported.
“The concept and interpretation of RI in the context of agrofood is on the exploration and expansion of local investment abroad in which agricultural activities could be carried out as joint venture or in partnership in the country concerned.
“The commodity which is brought into the country would be considered as part of the domestic production and the commodity must be fully sourced from investments made at each stage of the production value chain,” he said when winding up the debate on the royal address at the Dewan Negara yesterday.
Mohamad said countries found suitable for RI to produce cattle, buffalo, goat and sheep meat are Indonesia, Australia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan and India, while Indonesia was ideal for maize and other animal feed production.
Meanwhile, Mohamad said most agriculture graduates who were not employed in the field after finishing their studies could be due to the slow return of earnings, sometimes taking up to one year.
Therefore, the ministry is set to provide various allocations via Agrobank, among the measures, to encourage youth and agriculture graduates to be involved actively in the industry, he added.
