Ipoh theme park no longer needs capital injection, says MB
IPOH: The Movie Animation Park Studios (MAPS) theme park in Meru Raya here is now self-sustaining and does not need any injection of capital.
Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu said this showed that the plan to strengthen the financial standing of the park by the state government had already shown encouraging results.
“The management of MAPS has ended its intellectual property agreement with Dreamworks and Universal Studios. MAPS is carrying out partnerships with new entities as part of a restructuring of operational costs and capital expenditure to increase the park’s attractions,” he said in his winding-up speech at the state legislative assembly.
Recently, Aulong assemblyman Nga Kor Ming had suggested that the state government sell MAPS in an open tender to reduce the losses the government had incurred.
Faizal said the state government acknowledged the concerns of certain parties over the financial standing of the theme park.
He said the park’s management were focusing on marketing. To date, 67,549 tickets had been sold, with estimates of an average of 2,000 daily visitors expected throughout the school holiday season.
“The state government, however, is open to other options, including the possibility of accepting investments from the private sector, if they are interested,” he said.
Faizal said the new management of Menteri Besar Incorporated (MB Inc) had also decided that state operational costs needed to be reduced by up to 50 per cent and were currently reviewing agreements which were causing losses to MB Inc and the state government.