KUALA LUMPUR: Total investments in the country rose 9.1% to RM172.3 billion in the nine months to Sept 30 this year (9M2014), which were channelled into the services, primary and manufacturing sectors, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority said.

International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said the growth was mainly driven by the manufacturing sector, which saw RM63.5 billion in investments during the period, up a whopping 81% from RM35 billion the previous year.

“For 9M2014, the manufacturing sector saw a total of RM63.5 billion in approved investments. What we have achieved for the first nine months has exceeded the best ever performance, which was in 2008, which saw investments of RM62.8 billion for the year in the manufacturing sector,” he told a press briefing yesterday.

However, the services sector saw an 8% year-on-year decline in investments to RM96.6 billion from RM104.6 billion, while the primary sector saw a 34% fall to RM12.2 billion from RM18.4 billion a year earlier. Overall, the bulk of investments came from domestic sources, which accounted for RM119.8 billion or 69.5% of total investments, while foreign direct investments (FDIs) contributed 30.5% or RM52.5 billion.

This means that domestic investments were up 6% from RM113 billion in the same period last year, while FDIs were 17% higher from RM45 billion. Japan, Singapore, China, Germany and South Korea were the main contributors of FDIs for 9M2014, accounting for 76.1% of total foreign investments approved for the manufacturing sector.

Mustapa expects low oil prices to encourage more companies to invest in downstream oil and gas activities.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on December 9, 2014.