KUALA LUMPUR, June 12 — The Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (Miti) will ensure that investments and exports continue to support the 2023 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth target of 4.0 to 5.0 per cent.

Its minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the country recorded approved investments valued at RM71.4 billion for the first quarter of 2023, a jump of nearly 60 per cent year-on-year.

"With 1,265 projects approved, we can expect to generate 23,977 new job opportunities across the manufacturing, services, and primary sectors.

"As investments and exports are key components of our GDP, the government is, therefore, confident of achieving our GDP growth forecast for 2023, supported by Malaysia’s strong economic fundamentals and the implementation of Budget 2023 measures through Miti’s agencies,” he said in his speech during the launch of the EXIM Go-Export Financing Programme (GEFP 2023) here today.

Tengku Zafrul said through the upcoming New Industrial Master Plan 2030 (NIMP2030), the ministry will be leading institutional change and crafting strong policies to help industries build resilience.

He said Miti is working closely with its agencies and key institutions, such as Bank Negara Malaysia and the World Bank, to overhaul the industrial framework through several strategies.

"First, we are looking at ways to help our industries and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) tech up to future-proof themselves and build resilience.

"On this, Miti is re-imagining how we can build the industry’s value chain and research and development (R&D) capacity to improve our investment, trade and industrial processes,” he said.

He said Miti will work on getting both public agencies and private sector companies to tech up, and tech up quickly, safely and appropriately, to foster a more vibrant innovation DNA and future-proof Malaysia’s SMEs.

Secondly, he said, the NIMP2030 is also looking to safeguard economic resilience and inclusivity by, among others, developing a more strategic supply chain, strengthening industrial clusters and empowering halal agro-processing.

SMEs, the minister said, will also feature strongly in all projects in this pillar.

"Third, our SMEs will also be nurtured for resilience by our policy push to achieve Malaysia’s net zero targets by 2050. Sustainable development goals and related ‘green’ goals are the underlying consideration for our new industrial frameworks and policies to truly decarbonise our economy,” he said.

On this, Tengku Zafrul said, Miti will also ensure SMEs are part of projects on, for example, renewable energy, low carbon transition, the circular economy as well as carbon capture, utilisation and storage.

"The recently launched Greening Value Chain Programme, with the support of Bank Negara Malaysia and strategic partners, is one good example of how the government ecosystem is incentivising carbon emission management among our SMEs,” he added.

The EXIM Go-Export Financing programme, developed by EXIM Bank Malaysia, supports SMEs and corporate clients to obtain funding for their business in areas such as export development, green technology and supply chain ecosystem. — Bernama