Its minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said that in 2021 the approved investments were RM3.4 billion, RM80.8 billion in 2022 and RM60.5 billion last year, from various organisations such as Amazon, GDS, YTL and ByteDance.
While approved investments are vital in building up the momentum, he said Miti also focusses on realised investments.
He said that from 2021 to February 2023, there were 2,386 manufacturing projects approved by the National Committee on Investments.
From the 1,802 or 75.5% of the projects implemented, 1,597 projects were at the inception stage and 205 were at the construction of buildings or manufacturing facilities stage.
Out of the approved projects, 551 (23.1%) were in the planning stage, while 33 or 1.4% were not implemented due to a change in the respective companies’ strategy, said Tengku Zafrul at a press conference to announce Miti’s first quarter report card.
As for the performance of the Project Implementation and Facilitation Office (TRACK), he said a total of 802 cases have been facilitated since its establishment with key issues linked to customs, power supply, and one-stop centre – local council and immigration.
On the trade outlook, Tengku Zafrul said trade is set to improve in 2024, but challenges remain amid geopolitical uncertainties.
Aside from that, he said Miti has until the end of May this year to prepare a comprehensive Strategic Semiconductor Masterplan that will ensure Malaysia’s relevance while also progressing up the global supply chain.
“Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has asked Miti to work closely with other ministries, especially the finance ministry, to develop a comprehensive plan under which Malaysia will play a prominent role in the global space.
“The strategic plan covers every aspect of the ecosystem, which includes infrastructure, talent force and incentives,” he said.
He said significant economies, such as the EU and the US have introduced their legislation and strategies to encourage investments in the semiconductor sector.
“Therefore, Malaysia must develop a concrete and strategic plan to promote its semiconductor industry and players.”
The country has been a prominent player in the global semiconductor value chain for the past 50 years.
Malaysia accounted for an estimated 13% of global back-end manufacturing and 23% of US semiconductor trade in 2022.
Anwar previously announced plans to build Southeast Asia’s largest integrated circuit (IC) design park, which will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as British chipmaker Arm Holdings.