Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Photo: Xinhua)Last year, the Southeast Asian country recorded net foreigninvestment inflows of 48.1 billion RM (10.93 billion USD), the highest since2016. The manufacturing sector attracted 61.4% of the total with 29.5billion RM in 2021. It was followed by the service and mining sectors with 12billion RM and 5.8 billion RM, respectively.
Malaysia has attracted a total of 42.8 billion RM approvedinvestments in the manufacturing, services and primary sectors, involving 910projects from January to March 2022, according to Malaysian InvestmentDevelopment Authority (MIDA).
As of June 7, there were also 268 projects in the pipelinewith proposed investments of 14.4 billion RM in both the manufacturing andservices sectors.
Foreign investors' interest in Southeast Asia has increasedsignificantly after the pandemic. Regional economies recorded total inflows of175.3 billion USD, led by Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia.
One of the reasons that make Malaysia an attractive FDI destinationis its strong regulatory framework that provides stability and security forlong-term investors who want their investments, research and products to be protected.
The second reason is that the country's extensive access tofinance allows businesses to easily obtain capital and loans or be listed onthe stock exchange.
New fundraising methods such as crowdfunding andpeer-to-peer lending platforms that have grown significantly during thepandemic are also reasons why foreign investors are approaching the Malaysianmarket.
The Malaysian government also provides many incentives.Under Budget 2022, the government has allocated a special fund of 2 billion RMto attract foreign companies to invest in Malaysia and does not impose income tax forup to 15 years for manufacturing and service companies moving their operationsto the country.
According to the World Bank's Business Report 2020, Malaysiaranked 12th out of 190 global economies in terms of foreign investmentattraction with 81.50 points. This is an improvement from 15 - 24 years ago. Itranked second in the region, only after Singapore./.
VNA
