Asia Expansion Desk

Singapore · Regional expansion

Malaysia approved more factory projects in 2026 while their total value fell

Malaysia approved 973 manufacturing projects in the first half of 2026, up from 517 in the corresponding 2025 period. Approved capital fell from RM 68.44 billion to RM 51.26 billion, mainly because the value of new projects declined.

Sources checked

Asia Expansion Desk Editorial Team

Factory approval values by type and investor originMalaysia manufacturing approval values by project type and investor origin

First half 2025

Shared scale · 0 RM million to 43,851.5 RM million

  • New projects total43,851.5 RM million
  • Expansion and diversification total24,587.2 RM million
  • Domestic investment in new projects8,601.2 RM million
  • Foreign investment in new projects35,250.3 RM million
  • Domestic investment in expansion and diversification6,489.7 RM million
  • Foreign investment in expansion and diversification18,097.6 RM million

Switch between first-half years. Rows for funding sources are components of the new or expansion totals.

Source 1

The count and value trends diverged

The number of approvals rose from 517 to 973, an increase of about 88%. Their combined value fell by about 25%. Dividing the total by the count puts average approved capital at about RM 53 million per project in 2026, compared with about RM 132 million in 2025. Source 1

New projects explain most of the value difference

New-project capital fell from RM 43.85 billion to RM 25.80 billion. Expansion and diversification rose from RM 24.59 billion to RM 25.46 billion. The latter category therefore made up nearly half of the 2026 value despite having far fewer approvals than the new-project category. Source 1

The largest single change was foreign capital for new projects

MIDA's foreign component for new projects fell from RM 35.25 billion to RM 16.51 billion. The domestic new-project component increased from RM 8.60 billion to RM 9.30 billion. These are capital categories within the approvals, rather than balance-of-payments investment flows. Source 1

Employment is projected at the approval stage

MIDA lists 64,555 potential jobs for the 2026 approvals, compared with 46,690 in the earlier period. That estimate reflects approved project plans. The table also shows why approval counts, potential employment and capital values can move in different directions. Source 1

Sources

Open the data and source notes