Kedah Invest to be strengthened

ALOR SETAR: The Kedah Government will strengthen Kedah Invest, the state's investment promotion agency, in efforts to woo more
investments to the state, Menteri Besar Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir said today.

He said the state government would give attention to attract more private investments, be they from local investors or from abroad.

"(For this year) private investments until last month have touched more than RM500 million. Actually, this figure is small when compared to the amount of investments coming into the country.

"I'm not satisfied. We'll empower Kedah Invest to increase promotional activities and encourage more investments to flow into high revenue-earning sectors.

"The state will capitalise on the advantage it has such as the agriculture sector," he told reporters after tabling the 2014 Budget at the state assembly.

Mukhriz said he was adopting the approach to focus on the sector that Kedah has an advantage in to boost revenue for the state.

"We should not sideline the sector that we have an advantage and switch to a new field," said Mukhriz, who served as Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry before being appointed as Kedah Menteri Besar.

Mukhriz also said he wants to see more economic activities that yielded high productivity such as high-tech industries which should be promoted to the "best of our ability."

"In Bukit Kayu Hitam, we'll establish an industrial park, most probably a science park. We want to attract high-value investments to north Kedah, not only high-paying jobs but also create economic spinoffs from domestic economic activities.

"That's our primary aim," he added.