MITI’s US Trade and investment mission to prioritise hi-tech, high value investments

KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) has begun its trade and investment mission to the United States (US) from Nov 6 to 13, covering the cities of Chicago, Seattle, and San Francisco.

MITI said the mission will be led by its Minister, Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz, from Nov 8 onwards, with high-level representatives from the ministry and its agencies, namely the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) and Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE).

The ministry said in a statement today that the mission’s key priorities are high technology, high value foreign direct investments (FDIs) as well as Malaysian goods and services exports.

It noted that business meetings have been arranged with companies in sectors such as aerospace, chemical, electrical and electronic (E&E) including semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, electric vehicles (EV) battery technology, medical equipment, life sciences, cloud services and logistics.

“These are sectors that are expected to enhance the economic complexity of Malaysia’s manufacturing as stipulated by the New Industrial Master Plan 2030 (NIMP2030) that will help generate higher-value spillover business for our small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and better quality, higher-paying jobs for the rakyat,” MITI said.

The mission’s company line-up includes Abbott Laboratories, Amazon Web Services, Amsted Rail, Boeing, Canadian Tire Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Global Agri-Trade Corporation, Hematogenix, Lam Research, Mondelez International, Nvidia, PerkinElmer and Unigen Corporation.

MITI said that in conjunction with the attendance of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Week in San Francisco from Nov 14 to 18, there will also be business meetings arranged one-on-one with high-level representatives from companies such as Google, Enovix, Microsoft and TikTok.

In 2022, the ministry shared that Malaysia-US bilateral trade stood at RM267.58 billion, representing a 23.3 per cent increase year-on-year from RM216.97 billion in 2021. The US was Malaysia’s third largest trading partner as well as third largest export destination.

MITI pointed out that Malaysia’s E&E products made up the biggest percentage, or 57.4 per cent of total export value to the US, which places Malaysia in good stead to expand other high value sectors that also rely heavily on chips and semiconductors.

As of 2022, it noted that Malaysia’s net value of FDI in stock from the US was RM100.84 billion, with RM77.74 billion (77.1 per cent) of that total contributed by the manufacturing sector.

It added that for the period of 1980 to June 2023, a total of 1,295 manufacturing projects with US companies’ participation have been approved, with total investments valued at RM123.58 billion, generating employment for 308,310 people in Malaysia. – BK