Hajiji expects Sabah's FDI to exceed RM7 bln this year

He said this also effectively ranks Sabah as the third biggest foreign investment recipient in Malaysia.

"We are pushing this momentum and we are confident Sabah is and will be an attractive destination for investment.

I have stressed from the on set that we want to be investor-friendly and will ease all hurdles to facilitate all investments," he said at a dinner in conjunction with the council of Arab ambassadors' visit to Sabah at Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC) here last night.

Present at the dinner were the Ambassador of Yemen to Malaysia, who is also the Dean of the Arab Diplomatic Corps in Malaysia, Dr Adel Mohamed Ali Ba Hamid, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Malaysia Khalid AlGhaith, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to Malaysia Mahmoud Hussein Saeed Qattan and Ambassador of Jordan to Malaysia Thamer Abdalla Mohammad Adwan

Also present were Ambassador of Palestine to Malaysia Walid Abu Ali, Ambassador of Qatar to Malaysia Fahad Yousef Kafoud, Ambassador of Libya to Malaysia Mohamed AM Attia and Charge D'Affaires of Sudan in Malaysia Omer Mahgoub Ahmed Oushek.

Hajiji, who is also the state Finance Minister, said he is very confident that Sabah's economy would grow in tandem with Malaysia's economy which, according to the Economic Report 2022 by the Ministry of Finance, is expected to strengthen between 5.5 per cent and 6.5 per cent.

He said Malaysia's trade with several Arab countries has been good such as the total trade with the Qatar, which increased 130.2 per cent to RM2.87 billion for the January-August period this year as compared with RM1.25 billion for the same period last year.

Similarly, Malaysia's total trade with Saudi Arabia increased by 116.7 per cent to RM16.98 billion for the January-August period this year as compared with RM7.84 billion for the same period last year.

"Malaysia has enjoyed good bilateral relations with your countries and this is especially true in the areas of trade and investments.

"Other areas of no less importance are cultural, technical and educational relations," he said.

Meanwhile, he said Malaysia set a record high of RM26.7 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the fourth quarter of last year followed by RM23.3 billion in the first quarter of 2022 and RM24.1 billion in the second quarter of 2022, bringing the total FDI inflows for the nine-month period to RM74.1 billion, surpassing the total FDI in 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018.