KUALA LUMPUR – A total of 898 foreign investment projects valued at RM281.5 billion have been approved in the manufacturing and services sectors from 2022 to 2023, said Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Liew Chin Tong.
He said the approved foreign investment projects were expected to create 98,725 new job opportunities, of which 86,880 or 88%, would be for locals.
“For the manufacturing sector, 78,033 new jobs are expected to be created for locals.
“Five main sub-sectors with the highest new job opportunities for locals are electrical and electronics (40,618 job opportunities), non-metallic mineral products (6,746), machinery and equipment (5,555), scientific and measuring equipment (3,791), and chemicals and chemical products (3,684),” he said during the question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.
As for the services sector, Liew said 8,847 new job opportunities are expected to be created for locals, with the three main sub-sectors being support services (5,124), health-related services (1,407) and information and communication (1,022).
“Generally, investment projects take 18 to 24 months to be realised, depending on the project scale and current economic situation.
“Based on Malaysian Investment Development Authority statistics and experience, usually 85% of foreign investment projects would be realised in that timeframe,” he said.
He was responding to Datuk Larry Soon’s (Julau-PBM) question about the number of jobs that locals could benefit from by sector and industry as a result of foreign direct investment inflows into the country in 2024.
Liew said that Malaysia currently possesses advantages such as good logistics, the skills and ecosystem, and a strong supply chain.
“This has given Malaysia an opportunity to capitalise on the tense geopolitical situation between the United States and China, and we could observe the effect last year and the year before when record-high foreign investments flowed into our country.
“We have the skills and the skilled workers. But many Malaysians are working in Singapore as gig workers. So, the issue we have to resolve for creating more jobs or developing more skilled workers is to raise the salary levels in the manufacturing sector,” he added.
Liew said the global semiconductor industry needs new talent as it is experiencing a rapid shift or transformation.
“We need more people with expertise in semiconductors and artificial intelligence chips,” he added. – March 20, 2024