Sabah, Sarawak leap up investment ladder

The manufacturing sector attracted a strong surge of domestic investments for the first seven months of 2012, with Sabah and Sarawak emerging among the top three investment destinations.

After topping the 2011 list, Penang drastically dropped to seventh place in the January to July period.

Malaysian Investment Development Authority said (Mida) domestic investments amounted to RM13.7 billion, or 51.7 per cent of the total RM27.5 billion, from 469 manufacturing projects in the period under review.

Investments in Sabah and Sarawak jumped during the period, placing them in second and third rankings after Selangor.

By value of investments, Selangor, one of the traditional preferred investment locations for manufacturing activities registered the highest level of capital investments amounting to RM6 billion.

"This achievement is of no surprise as Selangor houses the country's largest and most sophisticated airport, seaport, highways and other modern facilities, developed by the Federal Government,"said Mida in a statement yesterday.

The other top 10 leading states in terms of value of investments were Sabah (RM4.8 billion), Sarawak (RM4.6 billion), Johor (RM3.1 billion), Terengganu (RM2.3 billion), Perak (RM1.8 billion), Penang (RM1.6 billion), Negri Sembilan (RM1.4 billion), Pahang (RM0.8 billion) and Malacca (RM0.5 billion).

Penang, ranked seventh in the first seven months of 2012, suffered a a 65 per cent drop in investment value.

According to Mida, the 469 projects will be able to spin off 46,137 jobs, mostly in the managerial, technical, supervisory and skilled manpower categories.

It said a majority of the investments were new projects (279 projects) with investments of RM17.4 billion (63.3 per cent).

" Existing manufacturing companies have also continued to reinvest, consolidate, expand and diversify into higher value-added products and activities to increase competitiveness of their operations in the country."

This is reflected in the approvals of 190 expansion or diversification projects with investments of RM10.1 billion. Of the RM27.5 billion, foreign investors injected RM13.77 billion.

During the first quarter, investments in the manufacturing sector jumped 12 per cent to RM15.1 billion, of which domestic investments formed the bulk with RM9.2 billion.

For the first seven months of the year, chemical and chemical products carved out the bulk of the total investments with 43.3 per cent followed by transport equipment (16.7 per cent).

The electrical and electronic products industry recorded a 6.9 per cent growth, on the heels of the food manufacturing industry, which saw an eight per cent growth during the period.

Mida said Saudi Arabia, Japan, France, Norway and Singapore were the leading sources of foreign investment.

It said for the first six months of 2012, foreign direct investments totalled RM12.81 billion.