Malaysia secures digital sector investments of RM5.2b from China and SG

Malaysia has secured a digital economy sector investment commitment of RM5.2 billion from China and Singapore, according to Malaysia’s communications and digital (KKD) minister, Fahmi Fadzil.

He took to his Twitter page to announce that the split in investment. In it, he noted that China has invested RM3 billion while Singapore has invested RM2.2 billion.

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This marks a significant improvement in investment numbers from 2022 to 2023 as in the first half of 2023, KKD reportedly raked in RM 28.4 billion which is more than thrice its collections in the first half of 2022, where in only raked in RM7.5 billion.

“This means, there is an increase of 279% compared to the same period last year,” Minister Fahmi added.

Malaysia has been on a roll in terms of its foreign direct investment attraction. Earlier this year, Malaysia and Singapore established a new platform to boost bilateral trade and investments between both countries. The Annual Ministerial Dialogue (AMD) aims to allow neighbouring countries to cooperate on digital and green economy as well as strengthen bilateral ties between both ministries, the Malaysian ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) and Singaporean ministry for Trade and Industry (MTI).

During the inaugural AMD, the ministers, Minister Zafrul Abdul Aziz of Malaysia and Gan Yim Kong of Singapore, reviewed the progress of the two frameworks on cooperation in the Digital Economy and Green Economy, which had been signed between the two governments during Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim’s earlier visit to Singapore on 30 January 2023. 

“Under the framework on cooperation in the Digital Economy, the ministers announced a new taskforce to explore the promotion of cross-border business trade, leveraging the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and Singapore’s Business sans Borders initiative,” Minister Zafrul said.

Earlier this month, Malaysia received RM76 billion worth of investments from its data centres from 2021 to March this year, according to Minister Zafrul, who was speaking at the grand opening of the GDS NTP data centre campus in Malaysia. He added that this was big growth in line with the government’s aim to make the country a data centre hub in Asia. 

“As for the data centre market share in Malaysia, the projection is nothing short of remarkable, with an expected average annual growth rate of 16%, or USD2.08 billion from 2021 to 2026,” he said in his speech.

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