PETALING JAYA: InvestKL has attracted RM1.68 billion new investments in the first half of 2022 (H1’22), where six multinational corporations from the United States, the United Kingdom, China and Australia have established global services hub in Greater Kuala Lumpur, covering industries such as food, technology, software development and pharmaceuticals.
The new investments created 1,919 high-skilled executive job opportunities in Greater Kuala Lumpur.
In 2021, InvestKL secured RM2.46 billion investments through 13 global services hubs.
InvestKL CEO Muhammad Azmi Zulkifli (pix) said the agency is to continue securing more investments, taking advantage of new opportunities available from the free trade agreements Malaysia has become a part of.
“These major trade deals hold excellent promise as they will make Malaysia more attractive for companies seeking to diversify their supply chains and widen market access for goods and services as well as digital products,” he said in a statement today.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership came into force earlier this year, while Malaysia aims to ratify the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership this year.
Meanwhile, under the Greater Kuala Lumpur Live Lab (GKL Live Lab) initiative launched last year aimed at strengthening Greater KL as an innovation and ideation smart city, two companies have signed up out of three targeted for this year. GKL Live Lab has secured projects covering edutech, healthtech, dronetech, data solutions and marketingtech.
Moving forward, Azmi said Malaysia needs to nurture more professionals such as big data engineers, cybersecurity experts and accountants to meet growing investors’ demand which will support the country’s objective in attracting high-value, high-technology and high-growth companies, in line with the National Investment Aspiration aimed at balancing economic development with environmental sustainability.
As the environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda gained prominence among the global investment community, greater emphasis must also be given to enhance the readiness of the country’s ecosystem and infrastructure in embracing sustainable development.
“We must keep ourselves at the forefront of ESG while capturing emerging opportunities in the shift towards a greener planet. Renewable energy offers huge potential and Malaysia needs to accelerate on this front to remain competitive,” Azmi said.
