Malaysia needs to get smarter about foreign investment

Government should pursue high-end projects to boost upgrading of economy

Guanie Lim and Aaron Pek

April 26, 2023 17:00 JST

A robotic assembly line for Proton cars in Tanjung Malim, Malaysia in 2019: The government needs to put more focus on targeting high value-added manufacturing. © Reuters

Guanie Lim is an assistant professor of Southeast Asia studies at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo. Aaron Pek is a former fund manager and the editor of Value Investing Substack.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is on a streak. After his administration won new investments early last month from Amazon.com and Tesla, he followed up by securing 170 billion ringgit ($38.3 billion) in investment commitments from Chinese companies during a visit to Beijing.