Kuala Lumpur, 26 July 2019 - InvestKL recently won one of the “Top Investment Promotion Agencies (IPA) Asia-Pacific Regional” by Site Selection for 2019 for having a reputation as a vital resource and a trusted partner for investors.

InvestKL was also being recognised as ‘the most professionally responsive to inquiries’, ‘having the best reputation for protecting investor confidentiality’ and ‘aftercare services’. The recognition marks the third award from Site Selection, after the awards won respectively in 2015 and 2017.

InvestKL Acting Chief Executive Officer, Muhammad Azmi Zulkifli said, “We are honoured to receive our third IPA Award and very much appreciate the recognition by the Site Selection consultants from around the world. This accolade not only recognises InvestKL’s good track record over the years and our steadfast commitment. It is also a trademark of the collective efforts of our key government stakeholders, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Federal Territories and Kuala Lumpur City Hall, to attract investments to Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia,” he said.

InvestKL has successfully attracted 80 Multinational Companies (MNCs) with approved and committed investments of RM12 billion, as well as the creation of more than 12,000 regional high-skilled jobs.

“InvestKL remains focused on attracting high value, high skilled and innovation-led investments to create quality jobs for Malaysians. InvestKL’s aftercare services focuses largely on meeting the needs of our MNCs and collaborating to develop the local talent pipeline with our Malaysia Global Talent Programme, and working with MNCs to facilitate industry-academia collaborations, amongst others,”, added Azmi. 

InvestKL is also aligned to the Industry4WRD blueprint launched by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, which aims to increase productivity, encourage innovation, and upskill the workforce to adapt Industry 4.0 initiatives.

“We have MNCs who are pushing the Industry 4.0 agenda and working in areas closely related to A.I., robotics, big data analytics, IoT and cyber security, to name a few. These MNCs provide benefits to the local economy and bring in specialised expertise in terms of new technologies, industry skills and knowledge transfer. This in turn continues to enhance the capabilities of our local talent pool,” Azmi stated.

Kuala Lumpur stands poised to connect foreign investors to the region and be a pivot point for businesses to expand their footprint in Asia. The Malaysian government continues to be confident that despite slower global economic growth, the country will remain a favourite business destination in the region, due to its strong fundamentals and known skilled labour force. In fact, Malaysia is seen to be highly favoured by investors with the country being named as the best country in the world to invest in or do business for 2019 by CEOWorld.

The Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Darell Leiking also affirmed that Malaysia had approved RM29.3 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the first quarter of 2019, which is an increase of 73.6 per cent. RM20.2 billion and RM8.1 billion of the FDI went to manufacturing and services sector respectively, with RM1 billion to main industries, commodities and others.