KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia achieved a new record with a total approved investment of RM329.5 billion in 2023, marking a 23% increase from the previous year.
This is the highest approved investment in the country’s history, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in a statement today.
He said that foreign investments, accounting for 57.2%, were the primary driving force, surpassing domestic investments, which constituted 42.8% of the total.
“This excellent performance is supported by an increase of 35.1% for domestic investments and 15.3% for foreign investments.
“Indirectly, this shows that the policies implemented through a whole-of-government approach have started yielding positive results in bolstering investor confidence,” he added.
He said this was presented during the National Investment Council’s second meeting today.
Anwar, who is also finance minister, said the total approved investment encompassed 5,101 projects, potentially creating over 127,000 new job opportunities for both the people and the country.
“The service sector took the lead in investment, contributing more than half (51.1%) of the total approved investment, totalling RM168.4 billion.
“Following closely is the manufacturing sector, amounting to RM152.0 billion (46.1%), and the primary sector (industries) with an allocation of RM9.1 billion (2.8%),” he added.
He said that during the meeting, discussions also centred on the country’s digital investment trajectory as it aligned with the evolving landscape of the economic sector, which was progressively becoming more digitalised.
“The digital economy in Malaysia, contributing 23.2% to the GDP in 2021, is projected to rise to 25.5% by 2025.
“For the period spanning 2021 to 2023, a total of 396 digital-related projects have been approved, amounting to an investment value of RM128.9 billion. This includes projects approved through the National Committee on Investment.
“The investment in these digital projects is expected to generate job opportunities for 36,553 local individuals.
“Among the approved digital investments are in the data centre sector, cloud computing, data hosting, big-data analysis and artificial intelligence,” Anwar added.
He also said that the existence of major international digital companies in Malaysia highlighted the country’s appealing and favourable investment environment for digital initiatives.
“Therefore, the government needs to facilitate as much as possible potential digital investment without any compromise on related aspects of data security and national sovereignty,” he said. – February 22, 2024