“It’s true that negotiations began in 2019 and this continued under the following administration, but Amazon Web Services (AWS) postponed its decision (to invest) and only confirmed its decision after the unity government took over,” Anwar told the Dewan Rakyat today.

He was responding to a supplementary question by Ku Abd Rahman Ku Ismail (PN-Kubang Pasu).

Earlier, Rahman pointed out that efforts to attract AWS to invest in Malaysia had begun in 2019 when Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the prime minister. He said negotiations continued after Muhyiddin Yassin succeeded Mahathir.

Last week, AWS – the cloud computing division of Amazon.com Inc – announced that it would invest US$6 billion (RM25.5 billion) in Malaysia by 2037 to strengthen cloud services infrastructure here.

Anwar also said the unity government had brought about political stability and this helped attract investors, including AWS and Tesla.

“They believe in a government that is stable and provides policy clarity,” he said, adding that these were the reasons cited by AWS in confirming its investment in Malaysia.

Anwar also said at least 10 Malaysian companies were looking into making major investments in development projects in Indonesia’s new capital of Nusantara, including Tenaga Nasional Bhd and Telekom Malaysia Bhd.

“I have told the Sarawak premier (Abang Johari Openg) that because Sarawak is nearer (to Nusantara) and has taken the lead (in investing in the new capital), this effort will be coordinated with the Sarawak government,” he said.