The Star: Invest Malaysia Facilitation Centre ready to help projects in the country, says Zafrul

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KUALA LUMPUR: The Invest Malaysia Facilitation Centre (IMFC) is ready to help and speed up investment projects in the country, says Tengku Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz.

"We have been looking at ways to speed up the process for investors and we do not want to call it a one-stop-centre any longer," he said.

"This is because people will laugh at us because when they go there, things end up stopping there.

"We set up the IMFC on Dec 1 and it is now fully operational," the International Trade and Industries Minister told reporters after visiting the Back to School MoodaFest 2024 on Sunday (Jan 7).

He said the IMFC housed representatives from several relevant agencies to help fast track projects involving both local and foreign investors.

On the setting-up of the IMFC, Zafrul said that this was in line with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's call for efforts to boost efficiency, cut bureaucracy, ensure speed in approvals and to look at ease of doing business to further attract investments.

Malaysia has secured significant potential investment, including RM6.56bil from Japanese firms during the Prime Minister’s visit to Japan in December.

The nation had also secured RM63.02bil in proposed investments from the United States, mainly from technology giants.

Apart from this, Malaysia had also secured RM190bil in investments from China in several sectors including the automotive industry.

Meanwhile, Zafrul said that despite the current global economic challenges, the nation succeeded in securing investments worth more than RM200bil in the first nine months of last year.

"This shows that Malaysia remains attractive for investors, but now we have to focus on the execution of the projects due to the amount of investments committed and the projects that have been approved," said Zafrul.

He said this was crucial as it would show the rakyat that the government could deliver its promises in terms of realising investments for the benefit of the nation.

"This is one of the challenges we face in 2024 with regards to investments; how to improve the ease of doing business for both domestic and international investors. Admittedly, there is still room for improvement," he said.

Besides the Kuala Lumpur-based IMFC under Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida), Zafrul said that the government had also set up a Coordinating Committee on Investment to help facilitate better cooperation from relevant agencies.