ECER surpasses target

> Private investments worth RM13.5 billion flowed into East Coast Economic Region last year

KUALA LUMPUR: The East Coast Economic Region (ECER) attracted RM13.5 billion worth of private investments last year, surpassing its RM12 billion target, despite a challenging global economic environment.

With this, ECER’s total private investments by the end of 2016 stood at RM101.0 billion, achieving 91.8% of its RM110 billion target by 2020, a solid indication of the region’s stellar performance in its socio-economic transformation.

More importantly, ECER’s growth has provided employment and entrepreneurial opportunities with more than 130,000 new jobs and 23,000 entrepreneurs created and developed, largely benefiting the B40 income group across the urban and rural areas in the ECER. This underscores the government’s commitment to bridge the economic divide and regional imbalance in the country.

“The Transformation Agenda in the ECER is showing positive results with the region not only meeting, but also exceeding its private investment targets. As a result, the rakyat is now reaping the benefits through better jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities,” East Coast Economic Region Development Council (ECERDC) CEO Datuk Seri Jebasingam Issace John said in a statement yesterday.

“In fact, the region has recorded a compounded annual growth rate of private investments and job opportunities of 30% and 37% respectively since 2008. We are highly optimistic that ECER will continue to surpass its yearly investment targets through the concerted efforts of the federal and state governments,” he added.

Since 2008, the government has allocated RM7.2 billion under the 9th, 10th and 11th Malaysia Plans through ECERDC to improve public infrastructure, promote investments and enhance human capital development, which has helped attract private investments and facilitate socioeconomic activities in the region.

In Budget 2017, the government approved 34 high-impact projects and programmes in ECER to accelerate the region’s socio-economic transformation.

“We are putting in place holistic policies, interventions and incentives that will spur investment growth and bring greater benefits for the rakyat. The increase in household income will lead to improved quality of life for the people in ECER,” Jebasingam said.

Over the years, ECER has recorded robust private investment growth primarily in the key sectors of manufacturing, tourism and bio-economy. Currently, these three sectors cumulatively represent 80% of the total investments into the region.