US Ambassador to Malaysia Brian McFeeters said US companies have made investment pledges totalling 100 billion USD (465 billion RM) in various sectors in Malaysia over the last 18 months. (Photo: malaymail.com) Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – US companies havemade investment pledges totaling 100 billion USD in varioussectors in Malaysia over the last 18 months, US Ambassador to Malaysia BrianMcFeeters said on August 21.
According to the ambassador, these are significantinvestments in areas where the US wants to strengthen its presence, namelyelectronics and semiconductor sectors, as well as data centre segment which isa big growth area. US investments are really coming strong into Malaysiabecause during the COVID-19 pandemic,the US found that Malaysia is a key part of the world’s supply chain.
Hesaid a lot of US factories are depending directly on something made inMalaysia, so the two countries have a mutually beneficial economic relationship that has beendeveloped to this day.
Theambassador added that most US companies that have invested in Malaysia havealso gained the benefits from latest technologies coming into the country. Meanwhile, Malaysia has been playing a very constructive role in terms ofeconomic integration within the ASEAN region.
Healso highlighted that Malaysia has agreed to host the Indo-Pacific EconomicFramework (IPEF) negotiation round which will be held in October this year todiscuss ways of creating a clean economy with renewable energy (RE).
Thenegotiation round, he said, will be looking into 21st century issues in areasof how to create a clean economy using more RE and improving the supply chainto avoid another breakdown in the future.
He said that thenegotiation round in October is particularly important because by November thisyear, the US is hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’Meeting where the US will announce the results of the discussions.
Hopefully, Prime MinisterAnwar Ibrahim will be there because Malaysia is playing a very big part inhosting the negotiation, the ambassador added./.