Malaysian Insider: ETP: Malaysia to kickstart private investment

Malaysia to kickstart private investment

Malaysian Insider, September 21, 2010

 

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21 — Malaysia today outlined ambitious plans to double its national income (GNI) by stimulating US$444 billion (RM1.38 trillion) of investments over the next 10 years, mostly from the private sector.

A government think-tank has identified 133 projects with investments worth US$444 billion, of which 92 per cent will come from the private sector.

Private firms will invest US$266 billion or 60 per cent, government-linked companies US$144 billion or 32 per cent, and the public sector US$34 billion or 8 per cent. Seven projects worth US$37 billion are ready to go now with a “named investor and serious commitment”, according to Idris Jala, the head of the Performance Management and Delivery Unit.

Following are the key sectors:

OIL AND GAS: It will see investments of RM218 billion over the next 10 years, starting with liquefied natural gas facilities in peninsular Malaysia by 2013. A 10-million tonne regional oil storage hub will be built in Johor state, next to Singapore, by 2015 to turn Malaysia-Singapore into an Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp type hub.

By 2017, Malaysia will be the number one oil services hub in Asia and by 2020, there will be 5 gigawatts (GW) of hydro capacity, 1.25GW of solar and a nuclear plant.

PALM OIL: It will see investments worth RM124 billion by 2020. This will help boost fresh fruit bunch yields to 23 pe rcent from 20.5 percent and there will be a move into oleochemicals and more downstream industry. This will be led by Sime Darby, IOI, Kuala Lumpur Kepong and state plantations agency Felda.

FINANCIAL SERVICES: This will see investments worth RM211 billion, mainly through leveraging Malaysia’s lead in Islamic finance to target markets like Turkey, Indonesia and Egypt.

KUALA LUMPUR: The city will see investments worth RM172 billion, mainly in the Kuala Lumpur Mass Transit which includes 141km of tunnels built in the largest infrastructure project in Malaysia.

TOURISM: It will see investments worth RM204 billion with plans to join up Kuala Lumpur’s shopping malls in an Singapore “Orchard Road” type development using walkways. There will be a “Malaysia Truly Asia” cultural centre to pull in the tourist dollar with “Broadway quality” traditional song and dance.

ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS: It will see investments worth RM78 billion. Malaysia plans to become the world’s second largest solar panel maker by 2020 and to boost semiconductors, LEDs and industrial electronics.

AGRICULTURE requires RM22 billion in investment.

HEALTH will see RM23 billion of investments and will see a Kuala Lumpur suburb become a “health metropolis”.

RETAIL AND WHOLESALE will see investments of RM255 billion.

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES will add RM51 billion in investment.

EDUCATION will see RM20 billion in investment.

BUSINESS SERVICES will see RM41 billion invested. — Reuters