Malaysia Must Leverage Industrial Ecosystem To Attract Quality Investments From US - Sim
GEORGE TOWN, Oct 8 (Bernama) -- Malaysia must continue to leverage its industrial ecosystem, skilled workforce, infrastructure and market access to attract more quality investments from the United States (US) amid intensifying competition from other Asian countries.
Deputy Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Sim Tze Tzin said Malaysia’s strengths, built over more than five decades, have enabled the country to compete not merely on cost or incentives but on its ability to provide a comprehensive ecosystem that allows investors to commence operations quickly.
“Even amid fierce regional competition, quality investors continue to choose Malaysia because of our underlying strengths,” he said in his keynote at the American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) Penang Dialogue 2026 here today.
Also present were Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, US Embassy Chargé d'Affaires to Malaysia David Gamble, US Ambassador to Tunisia Bill Barsi and AMCHAM chairman Datuk Timothy Garland.
Sim noted that Malaysia’s investment performance also reflected investor confidence in these strengths, with the country recording RM426.7 billion in approved investments in 2025, an 11 per cent year-on-year increase and the third consecutive year of record investment.
From 2023 to 2025, he said total approved investments, comprising foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic direct investment (DDI), reached RM1.143 trillion.
On Malaysia-US economic ties, Sim said American companies had played a major role in the country’s economic achievements, including creating tens of thousands of skilled engineering and technical jobs. He noted that many senior executives, plant managers and chief engineers at US technology companies in Penang today were home-grown Malaysian talents who had started their careers on the factory floor.
Sim said Malaysia now wanted its relationship with US companies to move beyond being viewed merely as an assembly location or market towards a deeper strategic partnership. “We want more localisation, more local purchases and deeper connections with our SMEs. We want them to bring advanced design and research and development (R&D) activities to Malaysia,” he added.
According to him, US direct investment in Malaysia had stood at between RM10 billion and RM12 billion annually over the past three years.
He also revealed that Malaysia-US trade reached RM328.8 billion in the first eight months of 2026, an increase of 35.7 per cent, while Malaysia’s exports to the US rose 17.2 per cent to more than RM233 billion in 2025, making the US Malaysia’s second-largest export destination.
-- BERNAMA