Plans to boost Johor’s growth
Four initiatives announced to turn state into economic power
ISKANDAR PUTERI: The Federal Government has announced four new initiatives to boost Johor’s growth and propel the state into a new economic powerhouse.
In announcing this, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said RM2.56bil will be allocated for the implementation of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in the next four years.
The other initiatives are a Johor Skills Development masterplan to help train a skilled workforce, a ‘Johor Sustainability Policy’ to balance development and conserving the environment and the construction of more than 2,380 homes in five new public housing schemes statewide.
“Johor is on the verge of a major transformation, especially with the many development projects and investments,” he said during the launch of the Ekspo Johor Berkemajuan at Kota Iskandar here yesterday.
On the BRT project, Najib said the Federal Government would allocate RM1bil for the project while the balance of RM1.56bil would be through privatepublic partnership.
“BRT is a high quality bus transit system, which will provide a reliable, comfortable and cost effective service.
“This project will be similar to the Light Transit System or Metro as it will be faster than normal bus services,” he added.
The BRT, he said, was expected to be ready by 2021 and would connect at least 90% of areas in Iskandar Malaysia spanning over 51km.
Najib added that BRT would be the “backbone” of public transpor tation infrastructure in Iskandar for the next two decades.
On the Johor Skills Development masterplan, he said a new RM100mil technical and vocational education (TVET) training centre was being built in Kulai to train some 20,000 people annually.
He said the Johor Sustainability Policy was to ensure a balance in the development and environment sustainability is achieved.
On housing, he said a total of five public housing projects would be created in Ulu Tiram, Masai, Permas, Bandar Tenggara and Sembrong by 2020, with the Government subsidising RM100,000 for each unit.