KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 3): A new investment from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be announced in the coming days, according to Khazanah chairman and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Speaking during the Khazanah Megatrends Forum (KMF 2023), Anwar said the investment from the Middle East signals investors’ confidence towards the clarity of the government’s policies.

“Tomorrow I’ll be leaving for Abu Dhabi for a day and in the next few days, we will be announcing great news from the UAE in terms of their decision to focus on Malaysia as being the hub for major Arab investments in the region,” he said in his closing address of KMF 2023.

Anwar added that the government is also looking into ways to facilitate greater ease of doing business in the country in a bid to attract high quality foreign investments.

“We have been struggling to end the bureaucratic encumbrance.

“There is no reason for investors to continue doing businesses despite all the talk about economic policies, Madani and transparency if you still have to wait two years for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) approval and six months for other types of approval,” Anwar stressed.

Malaysia saw RM132.6 billion worth of approved investments in 1H2023, making up 60.3% of the nation’s annual target.

The prime minister touted the government’s recent achievements in attracting high quality investments into the country, such as German semiconductor manufacturing company Infineon Technologies.

In August this year, Infineon announced its plan to invest €5.04 billion (RM24.9 billion) to expand its facilities at the Kulim Hi-Tech Park in Kedah. The company plans to manufacture chips to be used in the production of electric vehicles (EVs).

Meanwhile, Malaysia also witnessed another investment made by Tesla as the EV manufacturer opened its first centre in Cyberjaya.

The Cyberjaya centre is to be developed in two phases, with the first phase consisting of the retail area which showcases the latest Tesla EV models.

The second phase will see the centre rolling out more facilities for service, delivery and after-sales support. This phase is expected to kick in once the first batch of Tesla vehicles has been delivered to customers by the end of the year.