GEORGE TOWN, Nov 7 — The ongoing US-China trade war has increased foreign direct investments (FDI) in Penang, according to the state’s first Deputy Chief Minister Ahmad Zakiyuddin Abd Rahman.
He told the state legislative assembly today that Penang has been getting more inquiries from foreign businesses seeking to move their offices into the state due to the trade tensions between the two superpowers.
“Some companies affected by the trade tensions had to relocate their operations to other countries and we have received inquiries from some of these companies, so I would say we are getting positive effects from the trade war,” he replied to a question from Permatang Berangan assemblyman Nor Hafizah Othman.
Ahmad, who is also Pinang Tunggal assemblyman, cited data by the Malaysian Investment Development Authority showing new FDI and reinvestment by foreign investors for Penang totalled RM557.2 million and RM2.42 billion respectively between July and December 2018.
In contrast, he said new investments and reinvestment by Malaysian investors totalled RM617 million and RM202.4 million respectively for the same period.
Penang’s overall investments for the same July-December 2018 period totalled RM3.796 billion.
New FDI and reinvestments by foreign investors in Penang from January to June this year amounted to RM1.8 billion and RM6.9 billion respectively while local investments and reinvestments amounted to RM179 million and RM327.5 million respectively.
“This brings the total investments for January to June this year to RM9.214 billion this year,” Ahmad said.
Another plus point was that no manufacturing plant shut down or moved out of Penang since May 2018 to now.
He said Renesas Semiconductor (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd only closed its operations temporarily between April 1 and September 30 this year.
However, Ahmad admitted that one business has had to retrench some workers in its local plan here.
“In 2019, there is one factory, Osram Opto Semiconductors (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, that conducted the voluntary separation scheme involving 50 workers or 1 per cent out of the total workers in Penang and Kulim,” he said.
