The statistics department said the overall FDI rose to RM879.1 billion as at the end of 2022, an increase from the RM782 billion in 2021.

The department said the net direct investment abroad (DIA) stood at RM58.6 billion, largely from higher equity and investment fund shares in the Netherlands and Indonesia.

It said the encouraging performance of both FDI and DIA indicated “favourable economic conditions” that attracted foreign companies to invest in the country and allowed local companies to expand and diversify their business activities abroad.

Investment income related to FDI rose to RM104.7 billion as at the end of last year, up from the RM100.4 billion in 2021, as a result of higher income earned by foreign companies in Malaysia.

“The manufacturing sector was the main contributor to FDI flows in 2022, amounting to RM49.5 billion followed by the services sector at RM23.5 billion.

“The mining and quarrying sector was the third largest contributor at RM1.4 billion,” it said.

Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan remained the major investors in Malaysia from Asia while the Netherlands and Switzerland were the main investors from Europe.

The RM58.6 billion in DIA net outflow last year was the highest since 2014, with the main contributions in investment in the services, manufacturing, and mining and quarrying sectors.

Overall DIA increased from RM546.5 billion in 2021 to RM607.5 billion last year. However, investment income related to DIA fell to RM49.3 billion as compared to RM58.8 billion the previous year.

Malaysia’s DIA flows were mainly channelled into the Netherlands with a value of RM14.3 billion or 24.5% of total flows. This was mostly in the services sector with RM12.8 billion followed by wholesale and retail trade activities.

High DIA flows were also channelled to Indonesia at RM11.9 billion (20.3%) and Singapore at RM11.2 billion (19.1%).

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