Kuala Lumpur, 22 October 2020: InvestKL, the
investment promotion agency tasked to attract Fortune 500 and Forbes 200 global
multinational companies (MNCs) has achieved its KPI mandate of attracting and
facilitating 100 MNCs to set up their Regional Services Hubs in Greater Kuala
Lumpur (Greater KL). These MNCs have contributed an investment amount of RM 15.2
billion, as well as
the creation of 13,962 regional high skilled jobs.
Since inception in 2011, InvestKL is recognized as the agency with an
excellent track record of consistently achieving its KPI of attracting 10 MNCs
yearly. As a trusted partner for investors, InvestKL has been acknowledged by
Site Selection as the ‘Top Investment Promotion Agency (IPA)’, an award
received for three years in 2015, 2017 and 2019 respectively.
InvestKL Chief Executive Officer, Muhammad Azmi Zulkifli said, “This
achievement is a historic milestone. Despite the challenging year, the team
gone beyond and remained steadfast in achieving our target of attracting the
100 MNCs to Greater KL. These 100 MNCs operating their regional hubs are
creating high-impact and high-value activities right here in Greater KL. We
were very focused on achieving the target, kept our facilitation with MNCs
moving and aggressively promoted Greater KL’s compelling propositions to
attract more global MNCs looking to establish a footprint within ASEAN and Asia
Pacific. What’s next? We’re on the move for the next 100, this time targeting
MNCs in the digital, technology and sustainable space to complement Malaysia’s
path towards being Industry 4.0 ready.”
InvestKL has attracted some of the world’s largest MNCs to locate its hub
such as US based companies Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield company headquartered
in Houston and Cargill, the largest privately held US based MNC and the 3rd largest trader worldwide. In the European region, InvestKL has attracted Linde, the largest
industrial gas and engineering company and AstraZeneca, a science-driven biopharmaceutical company. Asian MNCs too have chosen Greater KL including CRRC (China
Railway Rolling Stock Corporation) the world’s largest rolling stock company in the
world and Kadokawa, Japan’s leading
creative content aggregator, publisher and distributer has position Greater KL
as its creative hub.
Other prominent MNCs facilitated by InvestKL over the years include
Honeywell, AECOM, Zurich, International SOS, Veolia, McDermott, CREC, Toshiba,
Oleon and Air Liquide. Overall, these 100 global MNCs are represented from regions
such as Americas comprising 24%, Europe at 49%, Asia at 24%, and others at 3%.
Benefits to the Country, People and Local
Ecosystem
Throughout the ten years from 2011 – 2020, RM 10.43 billion or (69%) of the RM 15.2
billion investments
have been realised. In addition, 9,546 or (68%) of the 13,962 high-skilled regional jobs are already on the
payroll. Of these (82%) employed are Malaysians with an average annual
income of RM
108,000. These
investments contribute growth value for the country and propel the Shared
Prosperity Vision 2030, while presenting a positive ripple effect to the
ecosystem, benefiting multiple industries, encouraging collaborations with local
players, academia, among others.
“Apart from fostering sustainable high skilled jobs for Malaysians, the professional
opportunities offered by the MNCs are very transformative and empowering,
allowing Malaysians to learn from the best and adopting global best practices. We
have also facilitated various SME collaborations with our MNCs allowing both
parties to reap the benefits and move up the value chain.” said Azmi.
“Our local talent has benefited tremendously from the knowledge exchange
and wealth of opportunities offered to them by our multinational companies. It
is a win-win situation for companies who are looking to expand into the Asia
region as Malaysia boasts a diverse multilingual and multicultural workforce,
with strong ties to different languages and cultures worldwide, making our
talent well-rounded for any global challenges and highly adaptable.” he added.
Strengthening Greater KL’s Competitiveness
& The Way Forward
Many MNCs have chosen Greater KL as a hub due to Malaysian government’s business-friendly
policies, world class infrastructure, vibrant ecosystem coupled with its
strategic location and access to fast growing markets within Asia Pacific.
Malaysia was ranked 2nd most competitive market with ASEAN by
the World Economic Forum, Global Competitiveness Report 2019. This was also
echoed by World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2020 ranking Malaysia 12th place. Greater KL is also known for its future ready graduates and their
potential to serve investors in various industries, making it an attractive
proposition. According to the 2019 IMD World Talent Ranking, Malaysia clinched
the 6th position among Asia Pacific countries on how they develop,
attract and retain highly skilled professionals.
Significantly, Malaysia and Greater KL have received its recognition as
strategic investment location with a potential to grow, attracting more high
value, high impact regional operations.
Azmi is confident, “We will surpass our target of 100 MNCs by the end
of 2020, that’s for sure. Now that we have achieved 100 MNCs, the team is
geared up to attract the next 100. We are already in conversations with global MNCs
and have a promising pipeline of leads to continue our work as a top investment
promotion agency. We will protect and retain the current investments and
identify expansion opportunities, and more high value regional activities while
we optimise Greater KL’s strong fundamentals and business-friendly approach to
attract new investments. There is healthy interest from our targeted sectors in
the high tech, high impact and digital type of companies, and this is an
opportunity we will pursue aggressively to shift decisions towards Greater KL.
We are excited to embark on the next phase of our journey as we strengthen
Greater KL’s investment portfolio and make it the undisputed investment
location in ASEAN.”