In a statement today, MIDA said its investment statistics were used as leading indicators for the purposes of economic planning and policy formulation.
“The statistics are also widely used by the private sector, business community and private economic analysts, researchers as well as potential investors to determine the investment climate of the country,” it said.
The comments were in response to remarks by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng on Monday regarding the statistics released by MIDA, as appeared in various media reports, including MalaysiaKini.
“The chief minister’s remark does not provide an accurate picture on its role.
“As the principal government agency for the promotion of investments in the manufacturing and selected services sectors, MIDA is also responsible for the collation of approved investments statistics in the country,” it said.
The agency said statistics on investments in approved manufacturing and related services, including proposed investments projects by both domestic and foreign, were under its purview.
“These projects are thoroughly evaluated by the relevant authorities in the National Committee on Investment process comprising Economic Planning Unit, Bank Negara Malaysia and Internal Revenue Board,” it said.
MIDA added that the projects which were still under negotiations or yet to be approved were not included in the released figures.
Currently, MIDA said, it has not received the application from storage manufacturer, Seagate, for its expansion project.
“MIDA’s practice is to protect the data privacy of companies until they are ready to announce their investments,” it said.
Lim was quoted as saying that MIDA’s figures of foreign direct investment of RM2.34 billion did not include Seagate’s RM1.05 billion investment.
On claim that MIDA did not capture data on a surge of shared services outsourcing investors in Penang, the agency said it was not true.
“Based on MIDA’s record, Wilmar and Air Asia received approved Multimedia Super Corridor status in 2013 while the project from CitiGroup was approved in 2012.
“These projects were not approved in 2014, hence the data on these projects have already been included in the reporting of investment performance of the services sector in 2012 and 2013,” MIDA said.
The agency also stressed that it treated announcements of potential investments as leads to be followed up with the prospective investors.
“This is to ensure the companies making the announcements will submit applications for various administrative matters,” MIDA said.
Touching on investments in six new hotel projects with a gross development value of RM693 million, MIDA said it collected data on investments in the sectors beyond its purview from various others ministries and agencies.
“This includes investment statistics on hotel and tourism projects approved by the Ministry of Tourism, which is also included in the reporting of investment performance of the services sector,” the agency said.
— BERNAMA
