Mida denies neglecting Penang, says investments up to July totalled RM4.6b

GEORGE TOWN, Oct 17 ― Penang recorded RM4.6 billion in capital investments between January and July this year, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) said today.

Refuting allegations by the Penang state government that Mida had stopped bringing investments to the state, Mida Deputy Chief Executive Officer I Datuk Phang Ah Tong said the 95 projects approved for the state between January and July this year is proof that Mida has continued to bring in investments to the state.

“We never neglected Penang, in fact, we work very well with InvestPenang to bring investments into the state so I don't understand why the state government accused Mida of not promoting Penang,” he told a press conference after launching a seminar on investment opportunities in the services sector here.

He said the federal investment agency does not practise discrimination when promoting Malaysia and all the states in the nation to foreign investors.

“We bring in investors to different states based on the state's merit and investment ecosystem,” he said.

He noted that Penang ranked fourth in Malaysia for total investments between January and July this year.

“If we compare the percentage of increase in investments, Penang recorded a much higher increase this year compared to national average,” he said.

Last year, a total 119 projects worth a total capital investment of RM3.9 billion were approved for Penang.

“The first seven months this year, a total 95 projects worth RM4.6 billion were approved in Penang, surpassing the investments for whole of last year by 15 per cent which is more than the national increase of only two per cent,” Phang said.

Malaysia recorded a total RM52 billion in investments last year and the first seven months of this year, it already recorded RM53 billion.

He reminded the Penang state government that it can't base its allegations on the number of potential investors Mida referred to InvestPenang.

“We have to base it on the actual approved projects because when we look at only referrals, we must remember that these meetings depend on the schedule of investors and not all of them have time to meet with InvestPenang,” he said.

He added that sometimes if Mida can handle the investors themselves, it is not necessary to bring them to InvestPenang especially if the investors are short of time.

Early this week, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng accused Putrajaya of losing interest in bringing investments to Penang by pointing out that Mida only referred two new potential investors to InvestPenang between January and September of this year.

Mida referred 14 potential investors last year, 24 in 2012 and 26 in 2011.

“While investment figures are important, it is not everything... we must also look at the investment ecosystem of each state such as the ecosystem in Penang is for electrical and electronic (E&E) but in Johore it is oil and gas and in Sarawak it is energy,” Phang said.

He said investors would also look at the location based on its strengths so an oil and gas company would not consider coming to Penang but would consider Johore.

The total investments in the E& E sector in Malaysia for the first seven months of this year is RM8.4 billion and out of that, RM3.1 billion is in Penang.

Phang said Mida is now formulating a second road map for the E&E sector nationwide.

“This is Penang's strength so we hope Penang can come in to work with us on the road map to build a better system for the E&E sector,” he said.

He also reminded Penang that Mida could not possibly discriminate Penang because investors look at the close co-operation between federal and state governments before committing and it does not speak well of the whole country if it is without close co-operation.