Shift In Flow Of FDI And Domestic Investments, Says Minister

By Joshua Foong LONDON, Jan 30 (Bernama) -- While Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) still play a very important role, having brought a lot of developments into the country the past few decades, there has been a shift of ratio between foreign and domestic investments, said Minister of International Trade and Industry, Mustapa Mohamed. "Moving forward with Malaysia's Economic Transformation Programme, we have seen a change in the balance between foreign and domestic investments; 72 per cent came from private domestic investment and 28 per cent from FDI," he said. Going into the future, Malaysia has to work harder to stimulate domestic investments as well, the minister said after delivering his keynote address and launching the United Kingdom & Eire Council of Malaysian Students' (UKEC) annual summit, Projek Amanat Negara 2012 here. Mustapa arrived in London after attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He also said approved foreign direct investments (FDI) by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) usually took two to three years before they get off the ground. The time frame includes obtaining approvals beyond the jurisdiction of the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, among others land acquisition, building plan approval, certificate of fitness, machinery installation and in some ventures, clearance by the Department of Environment. "Although not all of these investments are implemented, the ministry has managed to see to at least 75 per cent to 85 per cent implementation," he said. As much as RM31.7 billion worth of approved foreign investments was recorded from January to July last year surpassing the RM29.3 billion achieved for the whole of 2010. (US$1=RM3.03) --BERNAMA Malaysia