MICROSOFT -TO INVEST $1 BILLION- : MALAYSIA

Kuala Lumpur : Setting up Data Centres : Microsoft to invest $1 billion In Malaysia.

Microsoft Corporation will invest $1 billion over the next five years in Malaysia as part of a new partnership programme with government agencies and local companies, the Southeast Asia nation's prime minister said on Monday.

The announcement on what would be the US tech giant's biggest investment in Malaysia comes after the country in February gave conditional approvals for Microsoft, Google and Amazon and state telecoms firm Telekom Malaysia to build and manage hyper-scale data centres and provide cloud services.

It also comes after the country saw direct investment [FDI] plunge by 68% last year, the biggest decline in Southeast Asia.

Malaysia has defended itself as an investment destination, with the finance minister recently saying it was looking at incentives to help attract more FDI. [Reuters]