KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 — Malaysia will return to its Asian tiger status in three years, says Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.

He said the 48 per cent jump in foreign direct investments to RM80.5 billion in 2018, compared with RM54.4 billion in 2017, reflected investor confidence in Malaysia’s economic health.

Lim said Chinese and Japanese investments into Malaysia had increased substantially and he hoped local investors would follow suit.

"2018’s figures have been positive despite certain predictions and I think Malaysia’s economy is progressing well. We have exceeded consensus estimation even for the previous month.

"The Industrial Production Index at 3.2 per cent in January was higher than the estimate compiled by Bloomberg at 2.3 per cent,” he said in his keynote address at the Invest Malaysia 2019 capital market forum here today. — Bernama