Despite a sharp increase of approved total investment in manufacturing projects in the first quarter, economists predict the growth rate of private investment in Malaysia will decrease to 8.5 percent in 2015, Xinhua reported Wednesday. This is due to the effects brought about by decreased investment in the oil and gas sector, the real estate measures and consumer tax, according to the Nanyang Siang Pau. In addition, Petronas has postponed the operation of oil refining and petrochemical integrated development from early 2019 to the middle of the year. According to the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, due to the slowdown in direct international investment, Malaysia’s investment volume will face a difficult problem. New investment projects approved for manufacturing sector is expected to reach 56 billion ringgit ($41.4 billion) and 64.5 billion ringgit ($47.6 billion) for service sector.
