The Penang and Selangor governments should not claim that their achievements in attracting foreign direct investments are purely their own doing, the international trade and industry minister said.

Their successes are also due to "huge sums of money invested in the Klang Valley and in Penang" by the federal government, Mustapa Mohamed said today when announcing the investment figures for 2011.

NONE "The Penang and Selangor governments will spin the numbers in a few seconds, but this is the hard work of the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida),” he told a press conference.

"It is also the due to political stability and infrastructure in Malaysia."

Penang came second to Sarawak in terms of total direct investments, raking in RM14.03 billion, while also topping the list in approved manufacturing projects, with projects worth RM9.11 billion in 2011.

Selangor came in fourth in total investments, behind Sabah, but came in second on the list of approved manufacturing projects, worth a total of RM8.74 billion.

While conceding that part of the success is due to “cooperation with the state governments”, Mustapa said much of the investment in Penang comprises reinvestment by companies that have been in the state for longer than the Pakatan Rakyat government's rule which began in 2008.

“If Penang is said to be doing well because they are ruled by the opposition, then what do you say about Kelantan? But I'm not saying anything about Kelantan,” said the Jeli MP, who is tipped by some as the Kelantan MB-in-waiting.

Net FDI inflow up 12.3 percent

Mustapa announced that Malaysia's net foreign direct investment inflow made a leap of 12.3 percent at RM32.9 billion compared to RM23.9 billion in 2010.

Much of the investment into Malaysia comes from Asian countries, making up 72 percent of the total.

Leading the pack is Japan, which invested RM10.1 billion in Malaysia in 2011 while South Korea followed at RM5.19 billion and Singapore at RM2.17 billion.

The US invested RM2.51 billion in Malaysia last year, while Saudi Arabia followed with RM2.17 billion.

azlan Of total investments, slightly more than half or RM82.6 billion came from domestic sources while the remaining RM66.3 billion are from foreign sources, slightly higher than the 2010 FDI figure of RM44.6 billion.

New investments accounted for 59 percent or RM33.1 billion of the total, while 41 percent of RM23 billion are expansions of existing investments.

Mustapa said the five economic corridors contributed a whopping 62 percent of the investments, totalling RM34.7 billion.

Manufacturing won the lion's share, exceeding investment targets by RM28.6 billion.

But the RM56.1 billion raked in, while a 19 percent leap from 2010, still sits lower than the 2008 figure of RM62.8 billion.

Primary services took in RM28.1 billion in total approved investments, while services made up 43.4 percent at RM64.4 billion.

Mustapa said the government is confident of at least maintaining the 2011 FDI figures this year despite the uncertain global economic outlook.

“Private investment will continue to be strong. I believe that a faily big chunk of investments in the next few years will come from oil and gas,” he added.