The Star Newspaper
Business News By David Tan
Fruitful partnership: Lee receiving a souvenir from Boston Scientific executive vice-president of operations Ed Mackey during the ground-breaking ceremony of the company’s facility in the Batu Kawan Industrial estate. It is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2017.
BATU KAWAN: Malaysia is targeting to attract RM40bil worth of investments from the manufacturing and services sectors this year.
Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) chief executive officer Datuk Azman Mahmud said that of the RM40bil, about RM800mil would be for the medical device segment.
“For the first quarter of the year, we have approved RM651mil investments for the medical sector, compared to RM194.7mil achieved in the same period of 2015.
“The approved medical device investments would create 1,610 job opportunities,” he said.
Azman said this after the ground-breaking ceremony of Boston Scientific new plant at the Batu Kawan Industrial Estate.
The RM40bil investments would come mainly from the United States and Europe, according to Azman.
“We are now negotiating for these investments,” he added.
Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry (Miti) Datuk Lee Chee Leong represented Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed at the event to officiate the groundbreaking ceremony.
Lee also read out Mustapa’s speech.
In the speech, Mustapa said in 2015, the exports of medical devices increased by 15% to RM15.5bil from 2014.
“According to the National Export Council (NEC), revenues from the export of medical devices are projected to grow to RM26bil by 2020.
“In this regard, industry players in Malaysia will be able to enhance their exports by capitalising on the liberalisation of markets such as Asean, facilitating access to the region’s 620 million strong market,” Mustapa said. Also present at the event was Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
Boston Scientific’s new medical device manufacturing plant, which will involve investments running more than hundreds of millions of ringgit, is scheduled to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2017.