Malaysia has attracted RM16.52 billion in new investments from US, says Azmin

Malaysia has managed to attract new investments worth RM16.52 billion from the US through the recent trade and investment mission led by International Trade and Industry Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali.

“We hope that all of these commitments to investments can be finalised in the third quarter of this year, creating employment opportunities for the locals,” Azmin said during a press conference on the trade and investment promotion mission to the US today.

Companies that had committed to investing in Malaysia include Insulet, Ferrotec, Amazon Web Services Inc (AWS) and Cue Health. This is on top of investment projects by Texas Instruments and Boston Scientific.

The 10-day trade and investment mission, which kicked off on May 9, focused on innovative and high value-added new sectors, especially the semiconductor industry, digital economy and medical devices, in line with the National Investment Aspirations which focuses on high quality investments and the latest technology.

Azmin said the companies had also committed to creating a business ecosystem, ensuring technology transfers as well as the involvement of local industries, especially SMEs in their supply chain.

“Their investments will also generate employment opportunities, provide skills training opportunities for local workers, establish collaborations with local universities and help to develop local vendors,” he said.

The US is currently Malaysia’s third largest global trade partner and export destination, while Malaysia is the US’ 17th largest trade partner.

Azmin said that total export potential to the US was RM1.44 billion.

He added that despite the challenging global economy and economic uncertanties following the outbreak of Covid-19, total trade between the two countries increased by 21.4% year-on-year to RM217.10 billion (US$52.37 billion) in 2021.

Malaysia’s exports to the US rose by 30.4% to RM142.20 billion (US$34.31 billion), with main exports comprising electrical and electronic (E&E) products and rubber-based products.

Meanwhile, imports from the US rose by 7.4% to RM74.87 billion (US$18.06 billion), including E&E and steel products.