Irda targets Rm20bil investment annually till 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: The Iskandar Regional Development Authority (Irda) aims to achieve an annual investment of Rm20bil beginning this year till 2018, said its chief executive Ismail Ibrahim.

“For the second phase, beginning last year until 2017/2018, we want to hit Rm20bil in committed investments,” Ismail said during a media briefing on IRDA’S investment plan here yesterday.

According to Ismail, Irda’s longterm plan is to achieve investments of about Rm383bil from 2006 until 2025.

From 2006 to December last year, Irda drew committed investments of about Rm84.9bil of which 60% came from domestic investors while the rest from foreign investors.

“This (Rm84.9bil) is easily 20% or 25% more than what we had forecast. In terms of year-to-year forecast, in the early years, the forecast was between Rm10bil and Rm15bil. So, we have surpassed the numbers. Last year alone, we achieved a figure of Rm15.3bil,” he said.

Ismail said Irda’s target was about Rm25bil a year for the third phase from 2019 till 2025.

“On average, we want to have a growth of 8% every year. In the first phase from 2006 until 2010, we were averaging Rm10bil to Rm12bil per annum. For the second phase, we need to hit Rm15bil-rm20bil. So, from this year, we want to hit Rm20bil every year until 2018.”

Ismail said Irda was confident of achieving the targeted Rm20bil this year with the growing number of investments coming in.

From this, 55% to 60% of the investments are expected to come from domestic investors while the rest from foreign investors. — Bernama