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Chinese language chipmakers and know-how firms are heading to Malaysia in droves, its economic system minister Rafizi Ramli mentioned, as Beijing prepares to face extra tariffs when Donald Trump returns as US president this month.
The strikes by Chinese language firms, that are anticipated to end in billions of {dollars} of funding in Malaysia within the coming years, would rival the US firms which have dominated the nation’s market, he mentioned.
“Chinese language [companies] are very eager to go exterior and develop past their home market,” Rafizi advised the Monetary Occasions in an interview. “These firms are actually taking a look at relocating or increasing into Malaysia.”
Trump has threatened to impose 60 per cent tariffs on Chinese language imports when he re-enters the White Home on January 20, rattling buyers and placing firms on alert to restructure their provide chains.
Malaysia has been a big beneficiary over the previous decade of such “China-plus-one” methods, the place multinational firms complement their Chinese language operations with investments in regional nations to diversify threat and decrease prices.
It has additionally positioned itself as an important participant in world provide chains for high-tech industries reminiscent of synthetic intelligence, with long-standing semiconductor manufacturing operations in Penang within the north and a burgeoning hub for data centres within the southern state of Johor.
US firms have dominated these sectors in Malaysia, however Rafizi mentioned he anticipated a wave of Chinese language funding on the again of initiatives his authorities was putting in to develop the industries additional.
Joe Biden’s administration has restricted sales of superior chips by US firms to China, posing a possible risk to their investments in Malaysia, the place lots of the merchandise are manufactured, and opening the door for Chinese language opponents.
Rafizi mentioned he made a 10-day journey in June to China, the place he met 100 AI, tech and biomedical firms to evaluate their urge for food for investing in Malaysia. He added that these efforts had resulted in two funding delegations from China prior to now few months.
“Chinese language investments normally include their very own ecosystem,” he mentioned. “We will probably be seeing increasingly, particularly if we will safe the primary two or three anchor buyers from China.”
He added that many firms have been additionally looking for to extend publicity to the fast-growing south-east Asian market as China’s financial momentum slows and commerce with the US faces extra limitations.
This week, Malaysia signed an settlement with Singapore to create an enormous particular financial zone between the 2 nations. Malaysia hopes the initiative will add $26bn a yr to its economic system by 2030, bringing in 20,000 expert jobs and 50 new initiatives.
Between 2019 and 2023, Malaysia attracted $21bn of funding into its semiconductor trade and $10bn into knowledge centres — the storage amenities that allow fast-growing applied sciences reminiscent of AI, cloud computing and cryptocurrency mining. Prior to now yr alone, US tech firms Amazon, Nvidia, Google and Microsoft dedicated practically $16bn, largely for knowledge centres in Johor.
TikTok proprietor ByteDance is the most important Chinese language group to put money into Johor, with a $2bn dedication final yr.
Rafizi mentioned that whereas traditionally, Malaysia had been completely happy to simply accept any overseas funding, it was becoming more selective because it sought to contribute extra worth to the services it produced.
He added that whereas rising US-China tensions would hurt world commerce, it might immediate Chinese language firms to offer Malaysia an even bigger position in chip design, relatively than simply manufacturing, which might generate extra revenue because the nation climbed the worth chain.
“The unintended consequence of some tariff measures focused at Chinese language firms principally helps nations like Malaysia to weed out the extra real and long-term investments from China in comparison with those that simply look to make use of Malaysia as a producing outpost,” he mentioned.
