Malaysia bags RM13 billion in foreign direct investment from three investors after Singapore mission

[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry has bagged an additional RM13 billion (S$4 billion) in foreign direct investment from three investors at the end of its mission in Singapore, the ministry said in a press release on Tuesday (Jan 31).

The three companies are Sea Ltd, Yondr Group and Inseact, and their investments are scheduled to be operationalised within the next three years, said International Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz, who led a three-day investment mission to Singapore in conjunction with Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s official visit on Monday.

Sea, the parent company of e-commerce platform Shopee, committed to expanding its investments and creating over 2,000 jobs in Malaysia. It intends to set up cloud services, data hosting and processing, and a new e-commerce logistics warehouse.

Yondr is a UK-based data centre development and operation company that has entered the Malaysian market with the acquisition of a 30.4-hectare plot in Johor. It is also developing a hyperscale data centre campus that will be the largest in South-east Asia.

Singapore-based alternative protein company Inseact specialises in insect protein for aquaculture feed. It intends to set up a production facility in Johor, its first in the region, to meet the growing demand in Asia for sustainable food sources.

Zafrul said the committed investments not only reflected Malaysia’s attractiveness, but were also a testimony of the long-standing, mutually beneficial relationship between Malaysia and Singapore in trade and investment.

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“We intend to grow and strengthen this special relationship, particularly in building supply chain resilience for our respective industries, premised on cooperation in digital and green economies,” he said.

The trade minister added that Malaysia would continue to pursue high-quality, strategic and sustainable investments to fuel the country’s economic growth, boost the development of the digital economy as well as create more job opportunities.

“We are determined to prove to investors that Malaysia is pro-trade, pro-business and pro-investment,” he said.

Singapore is currently the second-largest investor in the manufacturing sector in Malaysia, with a total investment of RM96.4 billion in 3,475 projects.