MIDA urges coordinated investment strategy to position Borneo as an investment hub

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Highlights

Malaysia approved a record RM426.7 billion in investments in 2025, but Sabah and Sarawak received less than 7% of that share.
Sarawak and Sabah recorded RM10.8 billion and RM6.8 billion in approved investments, respectively, in the first half of 2026, indicating rapid growth compared with the previous year.
Invest Borneo will focus on downstream methanol, renewable energy, oil & gas, agriculture, tourism, halal, Islamic finance, and digital and AI skills.

This article was translated from the original. Read the original version by our correspondent here.

Priorities for the Invest Borneo action plan

As reported by The Edge Malaysia, Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) chairman Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the Invest Borneo action plan should focus on shared value chains, improving the ease of doing cross-border business and prioritizing investment realization.

He said MIDA, through its offices in Kota Kinabalu and Kuching, was ready to work with Invest Sabah, Invest Sarawak, the Brunei Economic Development Board, its counterparts in Indonesia and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) to advance the initiative.

According to him, Borneo is unique as the only island in the world shared by three countries, but this also means investors face different sets of rules and incentives, as well as multiple investment agencies each presenting their own offerings. He said Borneo has never lacked resources or potential, but investors often need a clearer picture of how each part of the island can be brought together in a comprehensive value proposition.

Malaysia recorded a historic RM426.7 billion in approved investments in 2025, while Sabah and Sarawak together attracted less than 7% of that total last year. Zafrul said the gap points to untapped opportunities for Borneo.

Regional momentum and sector opportunities

Sarawak recorded RM10.8 billion in approved investments in the first half of 2026, equivalent to around three-quarters of its 2025 total, while Sabah recorded RM6.8 billion. Trade between Malaysia and Brunei totalled RM5.86 billion last year, which Zafrul said showed there was still significant room for growth between the two neighbours, who share a long border and a common history.

He said that under the ASEAN Regional Investment Promotion Action Plan 2025-2030, ASEAN was positioning itself as a single investment destination across regional value chains. The same approach, he said, was being applied to Invest Borneo by leveraging complementary strengths, including Brunei's downstream methanol and fertilizer industries, halal products and Islamic finance; renewable energy in Sarawak; oil and gas, agriculture and tourism in Sabah; and opportunities from Nusantara and access to Indonesia's domestic market in Kalimantan.

Zafrul said Malaysia was also moving into high-value sectors such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence and green technology through the New Industrial Master Plan 2030, the National Energy Transition Roadmap and the National Semiconductor Strategy. He added that the country was also strengthening regional digital infrastructure, its sustainability agenda and public-private partnerships, noting that Malaysia was already part of the regional semiconductor and electric vehicle value chains and continued to grow its data centre sector.

For Brunei and Malaysia, he identified three near-term sector opportunities: the energy transition and green industries, halal and Islamic finance, and digital skills and artificial intelligence. He said progress would not come through government directives alone, but would require businesses to take action by entering into partnerships and taking early risks.

In our previous coverage of government support for cross-border e-commerce for Malaysian SMEs, we outlined the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives' steps to expand support so that more local businesses can enter overseas markets. The focus includes using global e-commerce platforms, guidance on regulatory compliance and product promotion, as well as SME Corp Malaysia's role in strengthening SMEs' digital export capabilities through strategic partnerships.

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