KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 15 — The total turnover of offshore companies under Malaysian control in 2019 was RM335.2 billion, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) released yesterday.
In its “Statistics on Malaysian Affiliates Abroad 2019” report, DoSM said the latest figure was an increase of RM4.3 billion compared to the RM330.9 billion recorded in 2018.
Malaysian affiliates abroad refers to companies — including branches, subsidiaries and joint venture firms — that operate outside the country and are controlled by Malaysian parent companies through a stake of more than 50 per cent.
The services sector dominated in 2019 with a turnover of RM209.5 billion, contributing 62.5 per cent of the total revenue generated by these affiliates.
Wholesale and retail trade, along with financial activities, were cited as the primary engagements under this sector.
The second highest turnover was recorded by the manufacturing sector at RM81 billion, with a share of 24.3 per cent, and mainly dealt in the sub-sectors of petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products.
Third was the mining and quarrying sector with RM26.2 revenue generated, amounting to 7.8 per cent of total affiliate turnover.
As for the performance by country, affiliates operating in Indonesia posted the highest turnover of RM50 billion, working principally in financial activities.
Then came affiliates in Singapore, whose activities were largely concentrated in wholesale and retail trade, with a turnover of RM39.2 billion.
The United Kingdom was the third largest contributor valued at RM38.1 billion, mainly engaging in utilities as well as wholesale and retail trade activities; followed by South Africa (RM30.9 billion) and China (RM25.4 billion).
There were a total of 2,237 Malaysian affiliates abroad in 2019, which collectively employed 412,937 people, and compensated them with some RM23.8 billion in that year.
