Malaysia Achieved USD 72 Billion in Approved Investment in 2021

April 2022

Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) has announced that the country’s manufacturing, services and primary sectors attracted a record amount of approved investments worth MYR 306.5 billion (USD 72 billion) in 2021, owing to the higher foreign direct investment and increased projects in the manufacturing and the electrical and electronics (E&E) sectors. The new high is an increase of 83.1% over the previous high set in 2020.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) accounted for MYR 208.6 billion (USD 49 billion), or 68.1% of total approved investments. The key sources of foreign investment in the manufacturing, services and primary sectors were:

  • Netherlands (MYR 78 billion) (USD 18 billion)
  • Singapore (MYR 47.3 billion) (USD 11.1 billion)
  • China (MYR 31.3 billion) (USD 7.3 billion)
  • Austria (MYR 18.9 billion) (USD 4.45 billion)
  • Japan (MYR 9.9 billion) (USD 2.3 billion)

Domestic direct investment (DDI), at MYR 97.9 billion (USD 23 billion), made up for the remaining 31.9%. Malaysia’s DDI in 2021 indicates that local industry players have improved their competencies and business capacity in order to compete on a global scale.

The following states accounted for 79.6% of total approved investments in 2021:

  • Pulau Pinang received the most investments approved in 2021 (MYR 83.5 billion) (USD 19.6 billion)
  • Kedah (MYR 68.3 billion) (USD 16 billion)
  • Kuala Lumpur (MYR 37.7 billion) (USD 8.8 billion)
  • Selangor (MYR 28.8 billion) (USD 6.7 billion)
  • Sarawak (MYR 25.7 billion) (USD 6 billion)

MIDA has 352 projects in the pipeline for 2022, totaling MYR 39.2 billion (USD 9.2 billion) in projected investments for the industrial and services sectors, which are expected to result in the creation of 19,000 new employment.

(Sources: MIDA; The Edge Markets)

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