Figures of realised investments in Malaysia for 2023 will be made public in the first week of April, said Investment, Trade, and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz at the Concorde Club meeting on Thursday (March 21).
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NewsTranscript
00:00 To answer the first question, firstly on the potential investments and the committed investments
00:06 that have been announced recently, especially during the visits by the Prime Minister, the
00:14 time of that will be around usually, implementation-wise, two to three years. And we hope that focus
00:25 on execution is going to be key. That's why I think the Prime Minister, and through the
00:31 Invest Malaysia Facilities Centre, and of course through our National Investment Council,
00:36 we are pushing for all parties within the government, especially the agencies and the
00:43 ministries, all the way to the state governments, including the local councils, to speed up
00:48 the whole process. There is definitely room for improvement in this area, because as committed
00:54 investment turns into approved investment, we need to make sure that approved investment
00:58 then turns into realised investment, and there's no unnecessary challenges that are faced,
01:07 or blocks that are faced by investors. But, alhamdulillah, we are seeing better speed,
01:15 better traction. In fact, we have already stated that we are confident that we will
01:22 start announcing the tracking of this in a more regular manner. We have done this every
01:30 six months, every one year usually, but we want to increase that and be more transparent
01:34 as well, so that people are aware of the process that is taking place and where those investments
01:42 are. So, I've instructed MIDAR to prepare a monthly report, which we will now be finalising
01:51 whether how are we going to then ensure that what has been committed, that what has been
01:58 approved is realised. So, the $329.5 billion that was announced, that was for the full
02:03 year of 2023, that was the amount of approved investment. So, this is only March, so we
02:11 will be announcing first week of April, the update on that. So, the numbers are being
02:18 finalised to show how much have started in terms of that $329.5 billion. So, I think
02:26 if you give us first week of April, we will give you the details.
02:29 You mentioned 85%?
02:31 Yes, 85% not for 2023. Based on track record of 2022, 2021, 2020, 85% usually have started
02:44 being realised. That is based on the track record. So, the 2023 numbers, we need to report
02:50 that in the first week of April, how much of that has started. I mean the region as
02:54 a whole, of course Malaysia is part of this region, where we are seeing positive flows
02:59 of funds in terms of investments that are coming in as a result of the trade tension
03:06 between two super economic powers. We've seen this flow not just recently, but over the
03:12 last couple of years. And of course, for Malaysia, we need to know where our strengths are, and
03:20 one of the areas of strength is actually in the digital and green economy. We are pushing
03:25 a lot on renewable energy, so we are seeing a lot of investments in that area. But on
03:29 digital economy, especially on semiconductor and data centres, we are seeing a lot of investments
03:34 coming into this area, especially for semiconductor where we have been a major player in the last
03:38 50 years. And we now want to move up that value chain from back end to front end, but
03:43 at the same time, as you said, we also want more Malaysian companies or Malaysian share
03:49 investors to also participate in the development of this ecosystem. Especially, I think renewable
03:57 energy, many Malaysian companies are involved, but there is still room for improvement when
04:02 it comes to data centres, so we are seeing some. I mean recently, one of our local companies
04:07 are partnering with one major player, NVIDIA. And so for semiconductor, where Malaysia has
04:15 a major market share in the global space, I think we should encourage more Malaysian
04:22 companies to invest in this sector as well.
04:26 Right.
04:26 Thank you.
04:27 Thank you.
04:27 Thank you.
04:28 Thank you.
04:28 Thank you.
04:29 Thank you.
04:29 Thank you.
04:30 Thank you.
04:30 Thank you.
04:31 Thank you.
04:31 [BLANK_AUDIO]