KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 —
Stable political administration and clear national policies are the key factors why Amazon Web Services (AWS) chose Malaysia as its investment destination, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Anwar, who is also Finance Minister, said AWS’ RM25.5 billion investment up to 2037 would have a high impact in that it would boost foreign investors’ confidence towards the country.
“AWS was invited by many Asean countries but chose Malaysia. This means it would increase the confidence (of other investors) and spur the entry of various investors from both the West and East.
“This (AWS investment) will provide opportunities for local businesses as it involves a more sophisticated approach, which is a cloud (infrastructure) hub in Malaysia,” he said during the Minister’s Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Anwar was replying to a query from Sim Tze Tzin (PH-Bayan Baru) who wanted to know the implications of the investments by AWS and Tesla as well as the government’s plans to bring more high-quality investments into Malaysia.
The Prime Minister said AWS’ investment would create knowledge-intensive jobs in line with the New Investment Policy via the setting up of the National Committee on Investment and National Investment Council.
“Job opportunities (are expected) to be in tens of thousands because the needs are not confined to the main investor Amazon but also for the supporting network.
“In fact, as soon as Amazon made the (investment) announcement, several companies from Singapore and Manila (Philippines) came out to say they will take the opportunity to invest in ancillary industries and under the Amazon web cloud,” he said.
Meanwhile, Anwar said that to attract more investments into the country, the government would empower the Special Task Force to Facilitate Business (Pemudah) so that the national investment climate was not dependent on any single industry but would be widened to include the digitalisation and information technology sectors.
“This is seen as the new approach that will be tabled in the New Industrial Master Plan 2030 in the third quarter of 2023,” he added.
— Bernama
