Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Sim Tze Tzin said investing in Malaysia makes financial sense for American businesses. Tax incentives, investment facilitation and other support are in place to protect US investments and their returns, he told The Star.
Speaking at the American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) Penang Dialogue in George Town, Sim said US companies had created tens of thousands of skilled engineering and technical jobs in Malaysia, citing the chamber’s Economic Impact Survey. Most of the senior vice-presidents, plant managers and chief engineers at major tech plants in Penang are homegrown Malaysian talent who started their careers on the factory floor, he said, and US firms have helped thousands of local vendors grow into mature, publicly listed global suppliers.
On the wider picture, Malaysia recorded RM426.7bil in approved investments last year, an 11% rise from a year earlier and a third consecutive record, The Edge Malaysia reported. Malaysia’s trade with the United States reached RM328.8bil in the first eight months of this year, a 35.7% increase.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said more than 100 American companies now call Penang home. From 2020 to the first half of 2026, the state drew RM18.2bil in approved US manufacturing foreign direct investment, or 38% of the national total. Of the RM177.7bil worth of electrical and electronic products Malaysia exported to the US, RM155.4bil, or 87%, came from Penang. “For every RM10, close to RM9 came from Penang,” he said.
US direct investment stock in Malaysia stood at between US$10bil and US$12bil over the past three years, Sim said. Last year, Malaysia imported more than RM81bil worth of services from the US, its largest source of imports, while exports to the US surged 17.2% to more than RM233bil, making the American market the second-largest export destination globally.
Amcham chief executive officer Datuk Siobhan Das said American companies pay 2.2 times the wage paid by Malaysian companies, and employees gain a career path inside American multinational companies. Training is provided, she said, but the companies still rely on the Malaysian government to produce students ready for the workforce, and a talent pipeline is needed as technology moves fast.
Gamble said a year marked by tariffs, wars, oil flow disruptions and supply chain rebalancing had left Malaysia a winner, with 94% of American companies here either keeping their investments or adding to them. “The relationship between Malaysia and the United States is getting stronger, which is profitable to all parties,” he said. The ties, he added, rest on 50 years of shared history and the trust the United States has in transferring technology to companies and Malaysians who take good care of it.
Penang is pushing those ties further, Gamble said, noting that the state produces 50% of the pacemakers that go to the United States and that its medical device industry is growing rapidly. US Ambassador to Tunisia Bill Bazzi said many companies wanting to invest in Malaysia or expand here listed trust as their biggest need. “Their need is to be able to trust that the technology will stay here. In Malaysia, you have that 50 years of trust that can be leveraged for future investments,” he said.
Sim said Malaysia must keep leveraging its industrial base, skilled workforce, infrastructure and market access to attract quality US investments, and should be seen as a strategic partner rather than an assembly line or market. He urged US firms to bring advanced design and research and development capabilities, and to help train young engineers in artificial intelligence and green technology. Amcham chairman Datuk Timothy Garland was also present at the dialogue.
