Malaysia's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) on February 13 announced that the country attracted 38.774 billion RM (roughly 12 billion USD) in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 2013, an increase of 24 percent over 2012.

The sum also exceeded the country's highest ever recorded FDI of 37.325 billion RM in 2011, by 3.9 percent, Bernama reported.

MITI said all sectors of the economy registered increases in FDI inflows. Investment was mainly poured in the manufacturing (37.6 percent) and services (28.8 percent), and mining sub-sectors (28.7 percent).

In the year, the country achieved a record 161.1 billion RM in realised private investment, an increase of 14.9 percent compared with 140.2 billion RM recorded in 2011, which also exceeded the annual average target of 148 billion RM under the 10th Malaysia Plan.

Many large corporations and prominent multinational companies had chosen Malaysia to establish their regional and global operations, while integrating their value and supply chain activities to take advantage of the country's strong ecosystem.

This trend, MITI said, would gain momentum going forward, given the government's continued policy of creating a conducive environment for the business community in Malaysia.-VNA