KUALA LUMPUR, June 23 — Industry players in Malaysia spent RM2.89 billion for environmental protection expenditure in 2019, up by seven per cent from the amount spent in 2018.

This was largely driven by an 18 per cent growth in capital expenditure, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) said in its Environmental Protection Survey Report 2020.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said operating expenditure posted a moderate growth of three per cent in 2019.

"The survey shows that operating expenditure constitutes the largest share at 70.3 per cent, while 29.7 per cent was spent on capital expenditure,” he said in a statement today.

The environmental protection expenditure has increased by 28.6 per cent since 2014.

Mohd Uzir said pollution management dominated the environmental protection expenditure at RM2.02 billion, or 70.1 per cent, and this was followed by waste management at RM751.7 million (26.1 per cent) and environmental assessment and charges of RM64.9 million (2.3 per cent).

The chief statistician noted that the manufacturing sector continued to dominate environmental protection expenditure in 2019 with a value of RM2.18 billion or 75.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, the services sector spent RM413.8 million (14.3 per cent) and construction at RM161.2 million (5.6 per cent).

At the state level, Johor spent the largest amount of environmental protection expenditure in 2019 with RM678.5 million, followed by Selangor (RM543.5 million) and Kuala Lumpur (RM292.6 million).

These three states accounted for 52.5 per cent of the total expenditure on the environment. — Bernama