KUALA LUMPUR: The Selangor government aims to turn the state into a centre for high-tech manufacturing to ensure long-term sustainable growth. It plans to achieve this by attracting investors with fourth industrial revolution capabilities.

       Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari said the state is looking for investors with capabilities such as automation, industrial Internet of Things and advanced robotics.

       He also aimed to make Selangor a global business hub, noting that this is supported by the state’s strategic location. It is served by two major international airports, the second busiest container port in the region as well as multiple advanced domestic rails, road and air links to economic hubs in the country. This will appeal to investors.

       “Additionally, Selangor’s well-established value chains within numerous industries, structured offline and online connectivity, excellent support by the state government makes Selangor ideal for foreign investors to make it their global business hub.

       “Indeed, Selangor offers foreign investors innumerable advantages for their plans to penetrate the Asean and international markets,” he said during the opening ceremony of the fifth Selangor International Business Summit 2021 (SIBS 2021).

       SIBS 2021 is a four-day event that will feature six sessions, including the Selangor International Expo (F&B), Selangor Asean Business Conference, Selangor Smart City & Digital Economy Convention as well as Selangor R&D and Innovation Expo with two new components – the Selangor International Expo (Medic) first edition and the Selangor Industrial Park Expo.

       Among those present at the launching ceremony of SIBS 2021 were Raja Muda of Selangor Tengku Amir Shah Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah and Selangor executive councillor for industry and trade Datuk Teng Chang Khim.

       In 2019, the Selangor International Business Summit welcomed close to 100,000 visitors from over 33 countries, which resulted in a total trade value of over RM1.1bil (US$268mil), said Teng during his opening speech at the SIBS 2021.

       Notably, Selangor’s gross domestic product (GDP) stood at RM344.5bil in 2019, which is 24.2% of the national GDP.

       Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Selangor received RM38.7bil in domestic and foreign direct investments (FDIs), whereby the manufacturing sector contributed RM18.4bil last year, while the remainder came from the services and primary sectors.

       Notably, Amirudin cited that global FDIs rose to 13.7% last year from 11.9% in 2019, stressing that investor confidence is returning to the Asean region.

       Although the FDIs into the Asean region fell significantly last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, he said experts considered the region to have vast potential to lead the regional FDI recovery backed by its solid fundamentals and steady progress.

       Following the widespread disruption of businesses from the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, Amirudin said the state government is rebuilding the economy through short and long-term recovery initiatives.

       “In the state budget for 2022 which I will table in the state assembly on Nov 26, several new initiatives will be introduced to ensure the continuation of our economic recovery plan for the state,” he disclosed.

       Given that the pandemic has also accelerated digitalisation, Amirudin said Selangor is expediting its plan to build a digital economy for the state to remain at the forefront of the digitalisation wave.

       “This would provide the foundation for attracting investors to high-technology and value-added sectors.

       “The Smart Selangor Vision 2025, although developed before the pandemic hit the country, is designed to empower its people, businesses and the public sector by optimising digital technologies towards delivering our smart state objectives across four key domains – smart government, smart economy, smart community and smart digital infrastructure,” he pointed out.

       Yesterday, the Selangor government, through Invest Selangor Bhd, launched the Selangor Biotechnology Action Plan 2021-2030 initiative with the vision of making the state a regional biotechnology hub for innovation, technology dissemination, investment and human capital development.

       The launch of the initiative came after the review of the National Biotechnology Policy and the formation of the state governance to decide on policies as well as to implement and monitor the strategies of the biotechnology sector.

       According to Invest Selangor, biotechnology is an emerging sector in the state and the newly launched initiative aims to identify high potential biotechnology subsectors to become the new economic growth drivers of the state.

       “The promotion of the biotechnology sector will allow economies to continue meeting consumer demands without compromising on the low carbon footprint and sustainability of biological resources.

       “This shift would allow Selangor to embrace the new image of a state that balances its efforts in maximising industry production output with the utilisation of sustainable resources and care for the environment,” added the investment agency.

       In conjunction with SIBS 2021, the Selangor state government had launched the Selangor Managed Industrial Park standard guidelines: a joint publication between Invest Malaysia and Plan Malaysia for the management of areas for future industrial parks showcasing new features and providing better services to companies setting up their manufacturing plants in the state.