KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is expecting a sluggish year in total
investments as global businesses continue to navigate headwinds and
uncertainty.
International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa
Mohamed is projecting that the country’s services and manufacturing sectors,
which pulled through a stormy 2016 to chart modest growth in investments and
projects, could see up to a RM2bil to RM3bil decrease in overall investments
this year. Total approved investments in Malaysia rose 11% to RM207.9bil in
2016 from RM186.7bil the year before.
A total of RM58.5bil went to manufacturing projects, while
RM77.1bil went to service sector projects, excluding investments in real
estate.
Mustapa said the Malaysian Investment Development Authority
(Mida) was expecting a decreased approved investment target for both sectors in
2017, with RM55bil for manufacturing and RM75bil for services.
Malaysia’s outlook continues to be uncertain, given the
increasing protectionist sentiment of several countries, but he said the
country was already off to a good start following a massive RM31bil investment
from Saudi Arabia’s Aramco in the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated
Development project in Pengerang, Johor.
“There will be ups and downs. Gone are the days of
double-digit growth. I don’t think we will see that as we continue to develop.
But we are looking for modest growth.
“This year, we hope to grow a bit more and see more iconic
and quality investments...we are going to be more aggressive. We will be
engaging companies more aggressively to understand what the issues are and how
to resolve them,” he told an audience at the Mida annual media conference
yesterday.
Investments last year funded 4,972 projects and created
153,060 jobs overall.
Though the number of projects had slightly increased from
2015, Mustapa noted that there was a 15% decrease in job creation.
The manufacturing sector last year saw a reduction in
investments to RM58.5bil from RM74.7bil in 2015, though Mustapa noted that the
higher amount of investments last year was primarily attributed to two major
projects approved then, namely, the Petronas Refinery and Petrochemical Corp
project in Johor and the LNG9 project in Sarawak worth RM35.3bil.
Johor received the largest amount of manufacturing
investments, followed by Selangor, Sarawak, Penang and Perak.
A significant portion of approved investments was in
capital-intensive projects, said Mida, which added that it is expected to
produce a “multiplier effect” which can benefit job creation, research and
development, skills, local sourcing and the generation of foreign-exchange
earnings.
While the value of domestic investments dropped 41% to
RM31.1bil, foreign investments shot up 25.1% to RM27.4bil. China was the
biggest foreign investor in manufacturing.
In the services sector, Malaysia recorded a 23.3% growth
year-on-year.
Real estate continues to lead with RM64.1bil of investments,
though key sub-sectors with relatively high value-added activities like global
establishments, financial services, information technology and
telecommunications and support services also recorded growth, Mustapa said.
The United States was the biggest foreign investor in the
services sector last year, followed by Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the
Netherlands.
The primary sector saw an increase of 116.7% to RM8.2bil,
with significant investment growth in the mining, plantation and commodities
and agriculture sub-sectors.
Asked how trade tensions between China and the US could
affect Malaysia’s interests, Mustapa said geopolitics between the two
superpowers could cause a negative impact.
“Hopefully, part of what they are saying is just rhetoric.
They have had high-powered meetings and from what I hear, it is mostly good.
So, hopefully, quite a bit of it is just rhetoric or there will be potential
risks,” he said.
Moving forward, Malaysia has RM35.3bil in investments in the
pipeline this year to expand the chemicals and chemical products, electrical
and electronics, machinery and metal sub-sectors in manufacturing and the
global establishments, healthcare, education and hospitality sub-sectors in
services.