After securing RM2.48 billion worth of investments in the first half of 2023, InvestKL says it is on track to meet its targets. However, CEO Datuk Muhammad Azmi Zulkifli warns that tough times are looming.
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00:00 InvestKL has managed to secure $2.48 billion worth of investments for the first six months of 2023,
00:06 and hopes to continue that momentum for the rest of the year.
00:09 But the reality is, given the current global uncertainties, that will be a challenging task.
00:15 We sit down with InvestKL CEO, Datuk Mohamad Azmi Zulkifli,
00:18 to talk about the positives that actually do lie ahead, the challenges that he has to face,
00:24 and how the newly unveiled master plans will fit into the entire scheme.
00:28 The first half of InvestKL actually secured $2.48 billion worth of investment,
00:37 which shows that it's pretty much on track to meet its goals, all the previous goals that it set.
00:42 Can you give an update as to what this number will be by the end of this year,
00:46 because we're wrapping up almost in about three, four months?
00:49 Take into account everything that you have on your plate and in the pipeline at the moment.
00:53 As we look forward, no doubt there are headwinds. However, we are confident ending the year at least
01:00 4X, four times, of where we are today, where a number of these investments, we are finalising
01:09 some of the papers, the details, and putting that together, and hopefully before end of 2023.
01:16 But any of these headwinds, do you think they'll push some of these decisions to maybe the first
01:21 quarter of 2024? Is that a possibility? The pipelines that we have at the moment
01:27 are quite secure in regards to putting those investments and securing them for 2023. So,
01:35 we are confident of securing this. The next level of investments, those are probably the ones that
01:43 we see that will most likely be in 2024. So, it means the decision-making has been done,
01:51 the necessary approvals at the company level have been done, as well as some of the other
01:58 peripheral activities, including site selection, including hiring people and setting up a company.
02:05 So, all these are in place. So, it's just a matter of time before they finalise and make
02:11 the necessary announcement. During the first half,
02:15 five global services hubs were also set up by MNZs, which included the Southeast Asian Regional HQ
02:21 of a leading provider of integrated smart manufacturing solutions from China,
02:25 and the First Asian HQ of Japan's largest travel agency. Hence why Azmi says it is important to
02:32 keep this momentum going with only a few months left of 2023. While investors like KL Solid
02:38 Infrastructure and Talent Availability, which helps grease the wheels of doing business,
02:43 it is not all smooth sailing with red tape and uncertainty often gumming up the works.
02:47 Are these the areas that they're the most critical about when it comes to sort of criticism about
02:52 the hard parts of doing business in Greater KL? The admin, the red tape, is that the only
02:58 pain points they have? On the other aspect as well is
03:02 the need to get or to obtain a bit more clarity. So, it's timely, for example, the new energy
03:09 transition roadmap that was launched recently, certainly gives companies a bit more focus or
03:16 certainty with regards to what and how they can do business. Of course, the recently launched by
03:22 our ministry, the new industrial master plan, so that's very important too, to really define
03:29 some of the areas of focus, the type of support from the government, as well as some of the other
03:36 areas of perspective where a lot of mentioning about public-private partnership, how can
03:44 companies or industry and government come together to accelerate some of these activities put
03:50 together. So, those being some of the bigger picture attributes and certainly on the ground
03:56 some of the other announcements related would certainly be helpful, more so when companies
04:02 plan for the future and at the same time looking at what are the certainties of the market.
04:07 Well, that's interesting because it leads on to what I was thinking next about how we always talk
04:11 about attracting the right kind of investment. I mean, this is a phrase that everybody has used
04:17 very often, you want the right kind of investment on your shores. So, what has InvestKL done to
04:22 achieve this and will the two new plans that have been announced help maybe give some guardrails so
04:28 you know where you are supposed to put your target to? When we look at the type of
04:35 investments as well, we need to take cognizance of the fact that imagine Greater KL as a particular
04:40 location where we wouldn't want investments that are a lot more land intensive or
04:46 labour intensive, for example, but a lot more focus on this high value and high tech type of
04:52 activities. So, putting all this into context, the need to sync up with the new industrial
04:59 master plan where a number of lead industries have been mentioned which are in the electrical
05:05 electronics industry, the digital economy, pharmaceutical medical devices, the aerospace
05:11 as well as the chemicals, petrochemicals. That does not mean that all other industries are not
05:16 important but it will be that supporting part in regards to the whole value chain where we see
05:24 all these investments putting together and all these industries are coming together. So, having
05:30 that sweet spot in terms of what you want to attract and continue to be focused with those
05:36 type of investments. Aside from that, each year there always seems to be an industry that draws
05:41 more attention than others. Before COVID, it was cloud computing and big data centres and while
05:46 that is still there, this year it is very much seems to be on renewable energy and electric
05:53 vehicles. According to Asbi, it makes sense. It is after all an evolution of Malaysia's electrical
05:58 and electronics expertise and the fact that we are already a car producing nation. But the
06:04 important thing for him is for Malaysia to also be a thought leader in these industries and not
06:10 just a passive cog in a wheel. He says that having the MNCs here gives a chance for Malaysian
06:16 academia and SMEs to become part of the production chain which can only be a positive thing moving
06:22 forward. Overall, while Asbi is positive about the second half of the year based on the pipeline,
06:27 he does not deny that the road ahead littered with geopolitical and food inflation worries
06:33 is going to be a rough one. The post-pandemic bounce back is not as high as a lot of people
06:40 would have hoped. So, we've talked at the beginning of this hour about the headwinds.
06:45 Is Invest KL concerned that this will slow things down considerably? For this time, it's looking at
06:52 this particular period of how we plan for 2024 and beyond, right? And looking at how companies
06:59 change their behaviour along the way, hoping that some of the newer plans that Malaysia have just
07:05 launched would be that catalyst towards those investments. The energy transition, it needs a lot
07:13 of innovation, technology, as well as people. The EV industry, we would see over the next three to
07:22 five years will accelerate and this would be attributed to a higher market penetration,
07:27 advancements on technology with regards to charging or even battery technology for that matter. Some
07:34 of the newer initiatives by the government to encourage mobility in this particular space.
07:41 So, I guess it will continue to develop and mature and perhaps a special attention to
07:48 what the markets in ASEAN would see like. The EV of ASEAN is probably different to other parts of
07:55 the world and that's probably something that we needed to take stock, to accelerate the innovation
08:01 and technology in this particular space and see how we can carve out a certain type of solution
08:07 in this space. For 2024, are you a bit more optimistic? We have a funnel going in but I do
08:14 not certainly see that we can achieve what we achieved this year. This year, there were two
08:21 large investments and these investments have been made public. One by a US company and the other by
08:27 a company from China. So, that is truly a landmark deal for 2023. We do not foresee that happening in
08:35 2024 but nevertheless, we should continue to develop and build upon some of the newer
08:45 opportunities in EV, in AI, the strategic location of how greater Kuala Lumpur can be that area
08:54 to focus on the midstream as well as upstream activities across industry.
08:58 Thank you.
08:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]