(From left) Invest Selangor Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Hasan Azhari Idris, Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry president and Asean Business Advisory Council 2024 chairman Oudet Souvannavong, Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari, Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz, and Selangor executive councillor for investment, trade and mobility Ng Sze Han at the 8th Selangor Asean Business Conference's opening ceremony. (Photo by Low Yen Yeing)

KUALA LUMPUR (July 25): The green industry will provide new business opportunities for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as well as jobs and skills development in Selangor, said Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.

In his keynote address at the 8th Selangor Asean Business Conference on Thursday, Zafrul reiterated that his ministry known as Miti aims to attract green investments into Malaysia worth about eight times the current value, to help realise the target of Malaysia’s net zero carbon emissions as early as 2050.

Green investments in the country surged by 326% year-on-year to US$1.03 billion (RM4.81 billion) in 2023, according to a report jointly published by Bain & Company, GenZero, Standard Chartered, and Temasek.

The green investment strategy, coordinated by Miti, will complement existing policies, such as the National Industrial Master Plan 2023, the National Energy Transition Roadmap, and the National Industry ESG Framework.

“Miti aims to attract roughly eight times the current value of green investments into Malaysia and stimulate socio-economic growth. By extension, Selangor, too, will benefit from this in terms of new business opportunities for SMEs, as well as jobs and skills development for Selangorians in the green industry,” said Zafrul.

The minister, however, did not disclose specific figures for business opportunities and jobs and skills development that the green investment strategy would bring to the state.

According to him, Selangor ranks as the leading state in gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 5.4% in 2023, outpacing the national GDP growth rate of 3.6%.

For the first quarter of 2024, Selangor secured RM12.4 billion in approved investments, the third highest in the country after Kedah (RM31.3 billion) and Kuala Lumpur (RM21.5 billion), data from the Malaysian Investment Development Authority showed.