KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Despite weaker domestic sentiment, Malaysia's robust investment approvals of 201.7 billion ringgit (49 billion U.S. dollars) recorded in 2018 signaled that investor interest remains strong, an analysis said Friday.
UOB global economics and market research said in a report that the higher investment approvals of Malaysia last year particularly from foreigners augur well for foreign direct investment (FDI) flows.
"Assuming 60 percent of average investment approvals in 2016 to 2018 are realized, this could translate to gross FDIs of 120 billion to 130 billion ringgit this year," said the report.
Malaysian Investment Development Authority announced Thursday that the total approved investments in the manufacturing, services and primary sectors increased to 201.7 billion ringgit last year, from 200.6 billion ringgit in 2017.
Foreign direct investment rose 48 percent year-on-year to 80.5 billion ringgit, accounted for 39.9 percent of the total investment.
The manufacturing sector approved investment jumped 37.2 percent year-on-year to 87.4 billion ringgit last year, as foreign investment in the sector up more than doubled to 58 billion ringgit.
China remained the manufacturing sector's largest foreign investment source with 19.7 billion ringgit across 40 projects, followed by Indonesia, the Netherlands, Japan and the United States.
The services sector investment fell 17 percent year-on-year to 103.4 billion ringgit; primary sector investment also dropped 12.2 percent to 10.9 billion ringgit.
Amid challenging economic environment, Malaysia's International Trade and Industry Ministry has set a target of 200 billion ringgit for approved investments in 2019. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 4.08 Malaysian ringgit)
