00:00 InvestKL has managed to secure $2.48 billion worth of investments for the first six months of 2023,
00:06 and hopes to continue that momentum for the rest of the year.
00:09 But the reality is, given the current global uncertainties, that will be a challenging task.
00:15 We sit down with InvestKL CEO, Datuk Mohamad Azmi Zulkifli,
00:18 to talk about the positives that actually do lie ahead, the challenges that he has to face,
00:24 and how the newly unveiled master plans will fit into the entire scheme.
00:28 The first half of InvestKL actually secured $2.48 billion worth of investment,
00:37 which shows that it's pretty much on track to meet its goals, all the previous goals that it set.
00:42 Can you give an update as to what this number will be by the end of this year,
00:46 because we're wrapping up almost in about three, four months?
00:49 Take into account everything that you have on your plate and in the pipeline at the moment.
00:53 As we look forward, no doubt there are headwinds. However, we are confident ending the year at least
01:00 4X, four times, of where we are today, where a number of these investments, we are finalising
01:09 some of the papers, the details, and putting that together, and hopefully before end of 2023.
01:16 But any of these headwinds, do you think they'll push some of these decisions to maybe the first
01:21 quarter of 2024? Is that a possibility? The pipelines that we have at the moment
01:27 are quite secure in regards to putting those investments and securing them for 2023. So,
01:35 we are confident of securing this. The next level of investments, those are probably the ones that
01:43 we see that will most likely be in 2024. So, it means the decision-making has been done,
01:51 the necessary approvals at the company level have been done, as well as some of the other
01:58 peripheral activities, including site selection, including hiring people and setting up a company.
02:05 So, all these are in place. So, it's just a matter of time before they finalise and make
02:11 the necessary announcement. During the first half,
02:15 five global services hubs were also set up by MNZs, which included the Southeast Asian Regional HQ
02:21 of a leading provider of integrated smart manufacturing solutions from China,
02:25 and the First Asian HQ of Japan's largest travel agency. Hence why Azmi says it is important to
02:32 keep this momentum going with only a few months left of 2023. While investors like KL Solid
02:38 Infrastructure and Talent Availability, which helps grease the wheels of doing business,
02:43 it is not all smooth sailing with red tape and uncertainty often gumming up the works.
02:47 Are these the areas that they're the most critical about when it comes to sort of criticism about
02:52 the hard parts of doing business in Greater KL? The admin, the red tape, is that the only
02:58 pain points they have? On the other aspect as well is
03:02 the need to get or to obtain a bit more clarity. So, it's timely, for example, the new energy
03:09 transition roadmap that was launched recently, certainly gives companies a bit more focus or
03:16 certainty with regards to what and how they can do business. Of course, the recently launched by
03:22 our ministry, the new industrial master plan, so that's very important too, to really define
03:29 some of the areas of focus, the type of support from the government, as well as some of the other
03:36 areas of perspective where a lot of mentioning about public-private partnership, how can
03:44 companies or industry and government come together to accelerate some of these activities put
03:50 together. So, those being some of the bigger picture attributes and certainly on the ground
03:56 some of the other announcements related would certainly be helpful, more so when companies
04:02 plan for the future and at the same time looking at what are the certainties of the market.
04:07 Well, that's interesting because it leads on to what I was thinking next about how we always talk
04:11 about attracting the right kind of investment. I mean, this is a phrase that everybody has used
04:17 very often, you want the right kind of investment on your shores. So, what has InvestKL done to
04:22 achieve this and will the two new plans that have been announced help maybe give some guardrails so
04:28 you know where you are supposed to put your target to? When we look at the type of
04:35 investments as well, we need to take cognizance of the fact that imagine Greater KL as a particular
04:40 location where we wouldn't want investments that are a lot more land intensive or
04:46 labour intensive, for example, but a lot more focus on this high value and high tech type of
04:52 activities. So, putting all this into context, the need to sync up with the new industrial
04:59 master plan where a number of lead industries have been mentioned which are in the electrical
05:05 electronics industry, the digital economy, pharmaceutical medical devices, the aerospace
05:11 as well as the chemicals, petrochemicals. That does not mean that all other industries are not
05:16 important but it will be that supporting part in regards to the whole value chain where we see
05:24 all these investments putting together and all these industries are coming together. So, having
05:30 that sweet spot in terms of what you want to attract and continue to be focused with those
05:36 type of investments. Aside from that, each year there always seems to be an industry that draws
05:41 more attention than others. Before COVID, it was cloud computing and big data centres and while
05:46 that is still there, this year it is very much seems to be on renewable energy and electric
05:53 vehicles. According to Asbi, it makes sense. It is after all an evolution of Malaysia's electrical
05:58 and electronics expertise and the fact that we are already a car producing nation. But the
06:04 important thing for him is for Malaysia to also be a thought leader in these industries and not
06:10 just a passive cog in a wheel. He says that having the MNCs here gives a chance for Malaysian
06:16 academia and SMEs to become part of the production chain which can only be a positive thing moving
06:22 forward. Overall, while Asbi is positive about the second half of the year based on the pipeline,
06:27 he does not deny that the road ahead littered with geopolitical and food inflation worries
06:33 is going to be a rough one. The post-pandemic bounce back is not as high as a lot of people
06:40 would have hoped. So, we've talked at the beginning of this hour about the headwinds.
06:45 Is Invest KL concerned that this will slow things down considerably? For this time, it's looking at
06:52 this particular period of how we plan for 2024 and beyond, right? And looking at how companies
06:59 change their behaviour along the way, hoping that some of the newer plans that Malaysia have just
07:05 launched would be that catalyst towards those investments. The energy transition, it needs a lot
07:13 of innovation, technology, as well as people. The EV industry, we would see over the next three to
07:22 five years will accelerate and this would be attributed to a higher market penetration,
07:27 advancements on technology with regards to charging or even battery technology for that matter. Some
07:34 of the newer initiatives by the government to encourage mobility in this particular space.
07:41 So, I guess it will continue to develop and mature and perhaps a special attention to
07:48 what the markets in ASEAN would see like. The EV of ASEAN is probably different to other parts of
07:55 the world and that's probably something that we needed to take stock, to accelerate the innovation
08:01 and technology in this particular space and see how we can carve out a certain type of solution
08:07 in this space. For 2024, are you a bit more optimistic? We have a funnel going in but I do
08:14 not certainly see that we can achieve what we achieved this year. This year, there were two
08:21 large investments and these investments have been made public. One by a US company and the other by
08:27 a company from China. So, that is truly a landmark deal for 2023. We do not foresee that happening in
08:35 2024 but nevertheless, we should continue to develop and build upon some of the newer
08:45 opportunities in EV, in AI, the strategic location of how greater Kuala Lumpur can be that area
08:54 to focus on the midstream as well as upstream activities across industry.
08:58 Thank you.
08:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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