SHAH ALAM, April 11 — The Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disaster will affect China’s investments in Selangor in the short term, the state government said today as tourists from the Asian giant snub Malaysia.

Ean Yong Hian Wah, the state executive councillor in charge of investment, industrial, new village development and whitening of illegal factories, also said that China was the fourth-largest foreign investor in Selangor — the country’s most-developed state — last year with RM228 million in investments.

“In the short term, there is an effect on China investments in Selangor, but we will continue our promotions in China,” Ean Yong told the Selangor state legislative assembly here during Question Time.

He also said that Selangor recorded the second-highest investments in the country in 2013 at RM9.8 billion, of which RM3.6 billion and RM6.2 billion were foreign and domestic investments respectively.

According to Ean Yong, the top five foreign investors in Selangor last year were Japan (RM1 billion), Singapore (RM840 million), the United States (RM459 million), China (RM228 million) and Switzerland (RM211 million).

He also said Selangor approved 228 projects last year, the most in the country.

In a written reply distributed to the media later, Ean Yong cited various factors that drive foreign investors to Selangor, such as the state’s strategic location near Port Klang, Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and the country’s administrative centre, political stability, and the use of English as a second language, among others.

Amid a massive international search that has yet to yield any evidence of the plane, Putrajaya estimated yesterday that as many as 30,000 Chinese tourists have cancelled their planned trips to Malaysia.

Two-thirds of the 227 passengers on Beijing-bound Flight MH370 that disappeared more than a month ago on March 8 were Chinese nationals.

In 2013, tourists from China made up the third largest group after Singapore and Indonesia.

Aside from denting Malaysia’s tourism sector, the aviation disaster could also affect Chinese buyers’ appetite for property development here.

US paper the Wall Street Journal quoted Beijing-based real estate consultants recently as saying that the drop in demand for Malaysian property was expected, at least temporarily, due to anger over Malaysia’s handling of the crisis.