MITI (Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry) is the federal ministry responsible for Malaysia's investment, trade and industrial policy. It formulates policy and negotiates free trade agreements, while two of its statutory agencies do the operational work: MIDA (Malaysian Investment Development Authority) promotes and approves investment in the manufacturing and services sectors, and MATRADE (Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation) promotes Malaysian exports. MITI was known as the Ministry of International Trade and Industry until it was renamed on 5 April 2023, keeping the same MITI acronym.
- MITI sets policy and negotiates trade agreements; it does not itself approve individual investment or export deals — that operational work sits with its agencies
- MIDA is the agency for investment promotion and approval in manufacturing and services; MATRADE is the agency for export promotion
- Renamed from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry to the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry on 5 April 2023 — same acronym, same ministry
- MIDA was incorporated in 1967 under the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Incorporation) Act 1965 (Act 397); MATRADE was established under the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation Act 1992 (Act 490), in force 1 March 1993
- From 1 January 2024, MITI centralised federal-level investment promotion and marketing functions under MIDA, to remove duplication between agencies in an investor's journey
- MITI leads Malaysia's free trade agreement negotiations, including regional pacts such as RCEP and CPTPP
- Around a dozen statutory bodies and companies report to MITI beyond MIDA and MATRADE, covering productivity (MPC), standards (SIRIM Berhad, Standards Malaysia) and trade financing (EXIM Bank, MIDF)
Who this applies to: Anyone trying to work out which Malaysian body sets trade and industrial policy, which one actually approves or promotes a specific investment or export deal, and how MITI, MIDA and MATRADE relate to each other.
On this page
At a glance
| Full name | Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry |
| Malay name | Kementerian Perdagangan Antarabangsa dan Industri (retains the historical Malay name; the ministry’s own English name changed in 2023) |
| Type | Federal ministry |
| Renamed | 5 April 2023, from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry — same acronym, MITI |
| Core remit | Investment, trade and industrial policy; free trade agreement negotiation |
| Key agencies | MIDA (investment), MATRADE (exports), plus around a dozen others |
| Website | miti.gov.my |
What MITI actually does
MITI does not approve your factory licence or your export grant. It sets the policy those approvals run on.
Confirmed on the ministry’s own site, MITI’s stated functions cover policy on industrial development and trade, attracting investment, promoting exports, enhancing productivity, running standardisation services, and supporting SME and Bumiputera business development for global competitiveness. Its vision statement is “Malaysia as the preferred investment destination, sustainable industrial and competitive trading nation.”
That split — policy at the ministry, execution at the agency — is the single most useful thing to understand about MITI. Two agencies do most of the execution:
| Agency | What it does |
|---|---|
| MIDA — Malaysian Investment Development Authority | Promotes and approves investment in manufacturing and services; the agency investors and companies actually apply to for licences and incentives |
| MATRADE — Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation | Promotes Malaysian companies’ exports and helps them enter overseas markets |
Where MIDA and MATRADE came from
Both agencies were established well before MITI’s 2023 rename, and both sit under it as statutory bodies rather than as parts of the ministry itself.
- MIDA was incorporated in 1967 under the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Incorporation) Act 1965 (Act 397). Its own stated mandate is to “harmonise government promotion efforts, optimise resources, and establish effective structured investment promotion agency governance” for Malaysia’s manufacturing and services sectors.
- MATRADE was established under the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation Act 1992 (Act 490), which came into force on 1 March 1993, as Malaysia’s external trade promotion arm.
A structural change worth knowing about: from 1 January 2024, MITI centralised the investment promotion and marketing functions of federal-level investment promotion agencies under MIDA, so that an investor’s journey does not run into duplicated functions across separate bodies. Regional investment promotion agencies affected by this move — InvestKL among them — were subsequently folded in under MIDA.
The name change that’s easy to miss
MITI carried the name Ministry of International Trade and Industry for decades before it became the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry on 5 April 2023. The acronym MITI was deliberately kept, so the rename shows up nowhere in day-to-day references — only in the spelled-out name. If an older document or citation says “Ministry of International Trade and Industry,” it is referring to the same ministry under its former name.
Beyond MIDA and MATRADE
MITI’s own agencies listing names roughly a dozen further statutory bodies and companies under its purview, alongside MIDA and MATRADE. The ones most likely to come up in practice:
- MPC — Malaysia Productivity Corporation
- SIRIM Berhad and Standards Malaysia (JSM) — standards, testing and industrial research
- EXIM Bank and MIDF — export-import and industrial development financing
- NAICO — the National Automotive Industry Council
The exact current roster and each entity’s legal form were not independently
checked against every enabling instrument for this page — treat this list as
illustrative, and confirm the current line-up on miti.gov.my before relying
on it for a formal purpose.
Trade agreements
MITI leads Malaysia’s free trade agreement negotiations, both bilateral and regional. Malaysia is a party to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), among other agreements, with MITI as the lead negotiating ministry.
Where the related rules live
| Topic | Article |
|---|---|
| Customs duties, import/export procedure and preferential FTA tariffs | RMCD — Royal Malaysian Customs Department |
| Company and business registration | SSM — Companies Commission of Malaysia |
What’s next
MIDA and MATRADE each warrant their own entity pages — how to apply for an investment incentive through MIDA, and how MATRADE’s export support programmes work — as separate, deeper articles once written. For now, the working rule is simple: policy questions go to MITI, investment approvals go to MIDA, and export promotion goes to MATRADE.
Do I apply to MITI for investment incentives, or to MIDA?
MIDA. MITI is the policy ministry; MIDA is the statutory agency that receives, evaluates and approves applications for manufacturing and services licences, tax incentives and related investment facilitation. MITI sets the policy framework MIDA applies.
What is the difference between MIDA and MATRADE?
MIDA promotes and approves investment into Malaysia's manufacturing and services sectors. MATRADE promotes Malaysian companies' exports into overseas markets. Both are statutory agencies under MITI, but MIDA faces investors coming in and MATRADE faces exporters going out.
Is MITI the same body that used to be called MITI in the 1990s and 2000s?
It is the same ministry lineage, but not the same name. It was the Ministry of International Trade and Industry for over three decades before being renamed the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry on 5 April 2023 — the acronym MITI was kept, so the change is easy to miss.
Who negotiates Malaysia's free trade agreements?
MITI leads Malaysia's FTA negotiations, including bilateral agreements and regional pacts such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
The following are deliberately unstated or described only qualitatively until confirmed by a subject-matter expert:
- The list of statutory bodies and companies under MITI's purview was read from MITI's own agencies page; the page names roughly a dozen entities beyond MIDA and MATRADE, but the exact current count and each entity's precise legal form were not independently verified against each entity's own enabling instrument, so only a partial, illustrative list is given here
- MIDA's own history page states its 1967 incorporation under Act 397, but the point at which the authority's English name changed from 'Malaysian Industrial Development Authority' to 'Malaysian Investment Development Authority' was not confirmed at an official source and is not stated in this article
Sources
- Vision, Mission, Corporate Philosophy, Objectives and Functions — Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI)
- Agencies under MITI — Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI)
- Act 397 — Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Incorporation) Act 1965 — Attorney General's Chambers of Malaysia
- Our Principles — MIDA — Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA)
- Act 490 — Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation Act 1992 — Attorney General's Chambers of Malaysia
- MITI: Investment promotion agencies' functions to be centralised under MIDA on Jan 1, 2024 — Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA)
- Investment Promotion Functions Streamlined Under MIDA — Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA)
- MITI now known as Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry — New Straits Times
Change history
| Version | Date | Change | By |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01.00 | 24 Jul 2026 | Approved and published. | — |