Iskandar Malaysia has recorded RM237.36 billion investments in total cumulative committed investments from 2006 until June 30, 2017, the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) said.

IRDA CEO Datuk Ismail Ibrahim said of the total, 55% or RM130.55 billion represented investments that had been realised.

He said local investors contributed 60% or RM143 billion of the total cumulative committed investments, while the balance of RM94 billion came from foreign investors.

This reflects continuous investor confidence in Iskandar Malaysia as it moves towards its long-term development objectives, he said in a statement yesterday.

He said from 2006 until June this year, the services sector, namely tourism, education, finance, healthcare, creative and logistics, which included emerging technology, recorded RM22.4 billion in investments.

For this quarter, logistics continues to lead the services sector with a total investment of RM6.7 billion, followed by tourism (RM4.69 billion) and healthcare (RM3.29 billion).

“The services sector has contributed 10% to Iskandar Malaysia’s total investment since 2008 until 2017. It reported a 17% growth from 2015 to 2016.

“The creative, healthcare, financial services and logistics sectors will continue to be the focus areas for new investments this year,” he said.

Ismail said Iskandar Malaysia was also poised to be the preferred regional logistics hub, with the Port of Iskandar Malaysia being one of the five “big moves” identified in the Iskandar Malaysia Compre-hensive Development Plan 2014-2025.

IRDA envisions to position Iskandar Malaysia as a world-class dynamic logistics and maritime hub in Asean and Asia Pacific, he said.

Ismail said the manufacturing sector, which is made up of the electrical and electronics sector, food and agro process- ing sector, and petrochemical and oil and gas sector, recorded RM59.26 billion investments from 2006 until June 2016.

According to the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, the manufacturing sector created 129,000 jobs in Iskandar Malaysia from 2006 until December 2016.

He said 717,547 jobs had been created since 2007 in various economic sectors, including the services sectors — such as logistics, creative, tourism and education, since the inception of Iskandar Malaysia.

“Fifteen percent of these jobs involved skilled workers and professionals, while 16% were semi-skilled workers,” he said. — Bernama