He said this staggering amount was indeed an indicator that the country's economy was already on the tracks of recovery compared to RM3.2 billion last year and another RM7 billion in 1999 in foreign direct investments.

"This shows that we have been able to sustain a buoyant economy as foreign companies was confident withe the government and the capabilities of the people," he said after receiving a reply from the ministry of Foreign Trade and Industries at the parliament session here yesterday.

Earlier, he had asked the ministry to reveal whether trade mission carried out by the Ministry and State Governments have been able to attract foreign direct to the country.

He also asked the minister to reveal the amount of FDI for the second quarter of this year compared to the same period in year 2000 and 1999.

Tiong said from 1996 to June 2001, FDIs approved for industrial sectors in the country were generally higher than the total local investments.

"For 1996, the foreign direct investment posted RM17.1 billion. However, due to the economic downturn, the FDIs had gone down to RM11.5 billion in 1997, RM13.1 billion in 1998 and RM12.3 billion in 1999"

However, he said the FDI recorded a higher amount of RM19.8 billion last year, adding that he believed that the total amount would post higher growth basing on the country's achievement in the first half of this year.

Tiong said the trade incentives and investment missions to foreign countries were very vital in an effort to promote Malaysia as long term investments' destination especially in the industrial sectors.

"The competition to attract foreign investment is stiff, not only among developing countries but also developed countries. Therefore, it is imperative that trade incentives and investment missions should not be continued but they should also be intensified to countries identified as primary exporters of capital and technology such as the United States, European countries, Japan, South Korea and Australia," he expalained.

He said the ministry had also drevealed that two more of such missions to Australia in August and another one to the United States somewhere in September.

He said the ministry had been active taking part in discussions with foreign companies operating in Malaysia through dialogues and seminars to convince and encourage them to carry out expansion projects with the upgrading of technologh transfer in their local operations in the country.

Apart from this, he revealed that a joint program with European Union (EU) and the government of Malaysia through Malaysia-EU Partenariat will be organized in Kuala Lumpur in November this year, adding that this program would provide opportunities to investors and businessmen from Europe and Malaysia to explore the investment opportunities in Malaysia.

The program would also enable foreign investors and local businessmen to explore the possibilities of technology transfers, technical assistance as well as opening marketing opportunities for Malaysia products in Europe, he said.

Tiong also said the government would continue to review and fine-tune the policies and incentives given to industrial sectors so that they would be more compatible and flexible adjusting to the changing environment.

The policy and incentive review was vital so as to allow more foreign direct investment into the country, he said.

"Through this arrangement, the government hopes to introduce special packages of incentive encouragements to encourage foreign or local companies to make investments which are basically capital and high technology intensive to produce better and higher value-added products," he said...END.