KUALA LUMPUR: Five foreign-owned manufacturing firms shut down operations and withdrew RM308.7 million in investments from Malaysia over a five-month period since May, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.
Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Ong Kian Ming said the withdrawal was based on business decisions and not due to the outcome of the 14th General Elections (GE14).
“Among the factors that caused the outflow of foreign investment from Malaysia included contracting global economic growth, uncertain markets due to lower demand and sale as well as increase in operating cost.
“Other factors are Malaysia’s focus on quality investment and high technology and the technological shift to digitalisation, which caused investors, especially in labour-intensive sector, unable to adapt their business operation,” he said in reply to a question by Datuk Seri Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz (BN-Umno-Tanah Merah) regarding the outflow of foreign investment since GE14.
The minister said the closing of these operations caused the layoff of 362 Malaysian workers.
He noted though that these companies had taken steps such as working with the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) to find jobs for the affected employees.
“They (companies that closed) also worked together with the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF) to help laid-off workers to enter a suitable skills training programme,” he said.
