During the four years, he said, FDIs of RM392.9 billion involving the manufacturing and services sectors were approved under the purview of the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida).

“Of the total approved, RM300.5 billion or 76.5% was successfully realised,” he told the Dewan Rakyat.

He was responding to Johari Ghani (BN-Titiwangsa), who asked the international trade and industry ministry (Miti) to state the amount of FDIs actually realised every year compared to the amount approved by Mida from 2018 to 2022.

Liew said 57.6% of FDIs were approved and realised in 2018, 75.6% in 2019, 62.2% in 2020 and 87% in 2021.

He said that generally, implementation of the projects involved would take one to two years, depending on the scale of the project and the state of the economy from time to time.

The Iskandar Puteri MP also said that official figures on FDIs for 2022 will only be finalised at the end of March.

In response, Johari said the figures revealed by Liew did not reflect the actual output, which he described as “very low”.

The former second finance minister suggested the government cancel any FDIs not realised within two years of their approval as the tax incentives provided changed from time to time.

“The government or the ministry should also report on the FDI outflow so that we can reconcile the figures (to reveal) the net FDIs into our country,” he said.