E&E Industry Continues To Be Key Driver Of Malaysia's Industrial Development

KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (Bernama) -- The electrical and electronics (E&E) industry continues to be a key driver of Malaysia's industrial development and contributes significantly to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, export earnings, investment and employment. The Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), in its National Transformation Programme Annual Report 2015, said 93 E&E projects with investments worth US$2.27 billion (RM8.9 billion) were approved last year. Of this, 26 projects were new projects with investments of US$536.42 million (RM2.1 billion) while 67 were expansion/diversification projects with investments amounting to US$1.73 billion (RM6.8 billion). (US$1=RM3.91) Pemandu said major E&E export destinations with significant increase (exceeding RM1 billion) for 2015 included Singapore, the United States, Thailand, South Korea, Germany, Japan and India, whereby total exports for E&E products was RM277.92 billion. It said the E&E industry as a whole would benefit from the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), particularly small-and-medium enterprises, as it would provide the opportunities to export to TPPA member countries, which collectively account for 40 per cent of global GDP. Meanwhile, the Business Services National Key Economic Area (NKEA), a critical component of the country's transformation journey, generated RM46.2 billion in Gross National Income last year, representing a 9.7 per cent growth over 2014. Moving into 2016, this NKEA would move from under the purview of the Ministry of Human Resources to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, leveraging on existing governance platforms such as the Malaysia Services Development Council and the newly-revived Malaysian Aerospace Council. "The coming year will also see the continued implementation of the 283.28-hectare state-of-the-art Sedenak Iskandar Data Hub, as well as, an increased focused on developing east Malaysian state of Sarawak as a data centre location given its large available land mass, abundant hydroelectric supply and low risk of natural disasters," it added. -- BERNAMA