KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 — Malaysia's trade performance continues to improve driven by different investments including domestic direct investments (DDIs) and foreign direct investments (FDIs), said the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (Miti).

Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the good performance benefitted not only from the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), but also from various types of agreement namely multilateral agreement, free trade agreement (FTA) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP).

"A total of 18 FTAs have been signed so far. We can see that trade continues to increase,” he told the media after delivering a speech at the Australian Network Leaders' Summit 2023 here today.

"These trade agreements help our exporters to access the international market."

Tengku Zafrul said in his keynote address that since helming Miti, Malaysia’s trade and investment missions have secured committed investments from four countries worth US$49 billion (RM230 billion).

The four countries are Singapore (RM13 billion), South Korea (RM24 billion), China (RM170 billion) and Japan (RM23 billion).

"This is a testament to the confidence foreign investors have in Malaysia, which helps policymakers like me and my colleagues to unlock numerous opportunities for our corporates, small and medium enterprises and fellow Malaysians across various sectors," he said.

He added that Malaysia's approved investments in the first quarter of this year saw a remarkable 60 per cent year-on-year rise to RM71.4 billion.

These figures are represented by over 1,200 projects and are set to create 24,000 new job opportunities, said Tengku Zafrul.

Tengku Zafrul said the issue that the government needs to address at the moment is the perception that business approvals need to be speeded up.

"The ministry together with related agencies will focus on the process to speed up the approvals required by domestic and international investors,” he said. — Bernama