State govts urged to cooperate with federal govt to attract investments

Senior Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said the effort was to attract new investments from abroad to the states in an effort to benefit the people.

"The efforts of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) are to bring in investments to states throughout Malaysia and we do not want an economic growth gap that is only concentrated in the Klang Valley and certain states.

"We want other states such as the East Coast and Sabah and Sarawak to also enjoy development, that is why we want the state governments to work with the federal government to upgrade the infrastructure and development of their zones and industrial parks," he told reporters after a working visit to the Balik Pulau Craft Incubator Centre here today.

Also present was Deputy Environment and Water Minister Datuk Mansor Othman.

Azmin said that last year, Kedah recorded an exceptional performance in the state's investment and this had indirectly given Kedahans the opportunity to get jobs without having to migrate to other states or districts.

"We at MITI also did the same thing the previous year, which was an investment from South Korea in the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park, which provided employment opportunities for Sabahans to get quality jobs.

"Actually, this is the role of the Malaysian Investment Development Authority and MITI to ensure that the development and investment can be spread to all states so that the vision of common prosperity can be achieved and benefit all Malaysians," he said.