Malaysia's International Trade and Industry Minister, Datuk Mustapa Mohamed, announced recently incentives to get Malaysia to become the regional centre for green energy, especially solar energy. This move has attracted small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with more than RM9.5 bill worth of investments approved so far, including those from major global names in the solar industry such as First Solar from the US and Q-Cells from Germany.

Mustapa made this announcement at a media briefing following the launch of the Asia-Invest PEACE programme in Kuala Lumpur recently.  The Asia-Invest PEACE programme, established by the European Union (EU) to develop and strengthen mutual trade and investment flows between Europe and Asia, had more than 100 corporate participants from the construction industry. The corporations came from Germany, Spain, Hungary, Czech Republic, China, and Malaysia.

Mustapa was also reported to have said that PEACE project's area of focus, namely SMEs and green technology, are important. He was quoted as saying:

The Asia-Invest project, which focuses on the construction industry, brought 25 European companies, five Chinese companies in 220 business matching meetings with 60 Malaysian companies for the second part of the business matching event. The first was held in Xian, China.