This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on September 19, 2017 - September 25, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: The official meeting between Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak with US President Donald Trump last week showed that Malaysia has become a significant trade partner to the US, says Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed.

When asked about how Malaysia benefits from the bilateral trade relationship with the US, Mustapa said that American companies are satisfied with the investments made in Malaysia and are looking to expand their activities here, although he did not specify any details.

“Don’t ever have the impression that we got nothing out of this (the meeting),” he told reporters at a press conference during the Malaysian Investment Development Authority’s (Mida) Open Day 2017 here yesterday.

He noted that as at June 2017, the US had invested RM70 billion in the Malaysian manufacturing sector alone and that American companies had provided no less than 200,000 jobs for Malaysians here.

Quoting a study done by the US-Asean Business Council, Mustapa said that 63% of American companies believe they will be making money this year in Malaysia.

“Despite what President Trump is doing to encourage American companies to do more at home, we find that American companies still consider Malaysia to be an excellent investment destination,” he said.

Mustapa noted that the proposed US$3 billion (RM12.57 billion) to US$4 billion increased investments by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) in the US will be used for a large-scale infrastructure development programme with a financing requirement worth US$1 trillion involving roads, bridges, highways and airports as Trump views that some of them need restoration and renovation.

He defended the move as saying that foreign investments have generated higher returns than domestic investments for the EPF and that specifically in the US, “returns must be good”.

However, Mustapa said that the proposed investment is still subject to the approval of EPF board of directors, and eventually it is up to them to decide if they will go ahead with the proposal.

In his keynote speech at the event, Mustapa regretted that Mida’s efforts and contributions have gone unnoticed.

He noted that from 1980 until June 2017, Mida approved a total of 29,209 manufacturing projects with investments of over RM1.08 trillion. Of this, foreign investments amounted to RM585.5 billion or 54%, while the remaining 46% or RM498 billion came from domestic investments, all of which created over 3.2 million job opportunities.