International trade and industry minister Azmin Ali said the investments in the manufacturing, services and primary sectors were expected to generate 79,899 jobs.

“The country’s stellar performance is testament to investors’ strong confidence in Malaysia as a preferred investment hub, particularly our conducive business ecosystem in providing high skill talents and a strong readiness in advanced technology,” he said in a statement by the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) today.

Azmin said the manufacturing sector accounted for 58.4% (RM103.9 billion) of total investments, followed by the services sector at 32.5% (RM57.8 billion) and the primary sector at 9.1% (RM16.1 billion).

About 96.8% of the total approved investments for the sector included electrical and electronics products (RM64.3 bil), fabricated metal products (RM14.0 bil), rubber products (RM5.4 bil) and basic metal products (RM5.2 bil).

Foreign direct investments (FDIs) accounted for nearly 60% of the approved investments at RM106.1 billion, with Singapore, China, Austria, Japan and the Netherlands being the top five FDI countries, accounting for nearly 85.3% or RM90.6 billion of the total value.

While FDIs led in manufacturing sector investments, investments by local companies dominated in the services and primary sectors.

During the nine-month period, domestic direct investments (DDI) totalled RM71.7 billion or 40.3% of the total approved investments.

Azmin said Kedah, Sarawak, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Pahang contributed RM134.8 billion or 75.8% to the total approved investments.