Iskandar Malaysia reaches new heights
Domestic and foreign investors’ interest in iskandar malaysia has remained strong since its inception 12 years ago, despite challenges in global economic growth.
iskandar Regional Development Authority (irda) chief executive officer Datuk ismail ibrahim said more efforts were needed to continue attracting new investments to develop the economic growth corridor.
“We are not done yet and all stakeholders have to work even harder to ensure that iskandar malaysia stays attractive and relevant in today’s highly competitive market conditions,” he said.
ismail said without cooperation from the Federal and Johor governments, the private sector and the community, iskandar malaysia would not have been able to move in the right direction.
Under the comprehensive Development Plan (2006-2025), irda has been tasked with transforming iskandar malaysia, located in southern Johor, into an international metropolis.
“We are confident of achieving iskandar malaysia’s target investment of Rm383bil by 2025, which is just seven years from now,” said ismail.
Despite uncertainties in the global economic scenario, he believes the target is achievable based on the rapid progress and development taking place in iskandar malaysia.
Although he acknowledged that the journey ahead would not always be smooth-sailing, he expressed his belief that every cloud has a silver lining.
“From day one, many parties were sceptical that iskandar malaysia could take off, but we have since proven them wrong,” he noted.
ismail also said it was most important to ensure that iskandar malaysia remained attractive as an investment destination regardless of the economic situation.
He said irda would continue to benchmark its propositions against other investment destinations while carrying out the best practice of providing one-stop advisory and facilitating processes to investors.
At the same time, he added, irda would continue to offer customised incentives to investors that invested in high value-added projects in iskandar malaysia.
“While the manufacturing sector is still relevant to iskandar malaysia, it has to move up the value chain as the country’s manufacturing sector can no longer remain labour-intensive,” he said.
He added that irda would also focus on the education, health, tourism services, and oil and gas sectors.
ismail said by not discriminating between domestic and foreign investors, iskandar malaysia would be able to grow the cake and avoid being dependent on selected investments.
“We want quality and long-term investments to support the key economic sectors and not investors looking to make money and exit the scene early in the game,” he said.