MALAYSIA will continue to be a business-friendly country and woo more foreign investors into the country even beyond the US-China trade war, Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Ong Kian Ming said.

He said the government would ensure that Malaysia would continue to offer good investment environment and facilities, coupled with high-skilled talents.

“I am sure that investments will continue to flow beyond the trade war,” he told reporters at the Selangor Investment Seminar today.

Economists are projecting that the ongoing trade war could come to an end next year by the 2020 US presidential election, while some expect it could last for decades.

Ong said Selangor, for example, is among the beneficiaries of the trade war with a large number of companies from the US and China relocating or expanding their businesses here.

“There are a couple of large-scale manufacturing companies that have come and applied for certain incentives and (plan) to set up their operations in Selangor,” he said.

This, he noted, helped balance between foreign and domestic direct investments in different manufacturing sectors in the state.

Last year, Selangor received RM113 billion worth of approved domestic investments in the manufacturing sector, accounting for 52.1% of the total investments, while the remaining 47.9% or RM103.9 billion were made up of foreign investments.

Meanwhile, for the first six months of 2019, Selangor attracted RM5.9 billion worth of total approved investments in the manufacturing sector, a 90.3% increase from RM3.1 billion in the same period last year.

Of the amount, RM3.8 billion were made up of foreign investments, representing 64% of Malaysia’s total approved investments in the manufacturing sector for the January-June 2019 period.

“Continued interest from investors had enabled Selangor to register a remarkable level of reinvestments by local and foreign companies. As at June 2019, 3,381 or 36.9% of Selangor’s manufacturing projects approved were in expansion or diversification activities.

“The presence of multinational corporations has also stimulated the development of local industries. Major foreign multinationals and large local corporations currently operating in Selangor include Spirit AeroSystems, Nestle, IKEA, Panasonic, Q-Cells, KL-Kepong Oleomas, Nippon Electric Glass, Perodua Global Manufacturing, Proton, Top Glove and Hartalega.

“With the established supply chain and ecosystem that have been created over the years, Selangor continues to be an attractive investment destination in the country,” he said. – Bernama, August 22, 2019.