This amount is expected to surpass the RM7 billion mark when a RM2 billion high-impact investment project, now in progress, is factored in, says chief minister Hajiji Noor.
He said this will effectively rank Sabah as the third biggest foreign investment recipient in Malaysia.
“We are confident Sabah will continue to be an attractive destination for investment.
“I have stressed from the onset that we want to be investor-friendly and will ease all hurdles to facilitate all investments,” he said at a dinner in conjunction with the Council of Arab Ambassadors’ visit to Sabah at the Sabah International Convention Centre here last night.
Present at the dinner were the ambassador of Yemen to Malaysia, who is also the dean of the Arab Diplomatic Corps in Malaysia, Adel Mohamed Ali Ba Hamid, ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Malaysia Khalid AlGhaith, ambassador of Saudi Arabia to Malaysia Mahmoud Hussein Saeed Qattan and ambassador of Jordan to Malaysia Thamer Abdalla Mohammad Adwan.
Also present were ambassador of Palestine to Malaysia Walid Abu Ali, ambassador of Qatar to Malaysia Fahad Yousef Kafoud, ambassador of Libya to Malaysia Mohamed AM Attia and Charge D’Affaires of Sudan in Malaysia Omer Mahgoub Ahmed Oushek.
Hajiji, who is also the state finance minister, said he was very confident that Sabah’s economy would grow in tandem with Malaysia’s economy which, according to the Economic Report 2022 by the finance ministry, was expected to strengthen between 5.5% and 6.5%.
He said Malaysia’s trade with several Arab countries had been good. For instance, total trade with Qatar increased 130.2% to RM2.87 billion for the January-August period this year when compared with RM1.25 billion for the same period last year.
Similarly, Malaysia’s total trade with Saudi Arabia increased by 116.7% to RM16.98 billion for the January-August period this year when compared with RM7.84 billion for the same period last year.
“Malaysia has enjoyed good bilateral relations with the Arab countries and this is especially true in trade and investments.
“Of no less importance are cultural, technical and educational relations,” he said.
He said Malaysia set a record high of RM26.7 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the fourth quarter of last year, followed by RM23.3 billion in the first quarter of 2022 and RM24.1 billion in the second quarter of 2022, bringing the total FDI inflows for the nine-month period to RM74.1 billion, surpassing the total FDI in 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018.
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