Iskandar eyes more investments in third phase
Published on: Monday, July 27, 2015
Johor: It may be a slow-paced period for Iskandar Malaysia right now, but that is okay, given the momentum the economic region has been picking up over the past eight years.The property sector may experiencing a slowdown, but other sectors are still moving at a constant momentum.Thanks to its sales success stories domestically and overseas, Iskandar Malaysia, which was described as "selling dreams" during its early inception, now has a lot to offer other than just dreams.
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"Over the past nine years, Iskandar Malaysia has been growing with consistency and quality, I think that is foremost in our mind. "This consistency and quality shows that Iskandar Malaysia continues to be competitive as we are able to present it in terms of the many elements that make this region attractive for investment, for work as well as for living," Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) Chief Executive Datuk Ismail Ibrahim said in an interview recently.On the challenges in developing Iskandar Malaysia, Ismail said balancing development with maintaining the green agenda and sustainability was an arduous task for IRDA."During the early days, the challenge was mainly to win the hearts and minds of the people and the business community, to convince them that Iskandar Malaysia was 'the thing' for them, but we have already passed that phase of challenge.
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"The challenge today is really about how to convince people on what more is coming for them in Iskandar Malaysia (and) what more the government is going to build, in terms of the ecosystem that makes Iskandar Malaysia more competitive," he said.Ismail said some economic sectors are already moving under their own momentum while some are lagging behind, taking stock of other developments before really taking off.
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"The ones that have been experiencing growth consistently are tourism, education and healthcare. We have now almost completely covered the second phase of Iskandar Malaysia's roadmap. "Now we are beginning to see perhaps three more sectors – creative, logistics and oil and oleochemicals – coming to play in the next one to two years," he added.The other three sectors completing the total of nine under the Iskandar Malaysia masterplan – electrical and electronics, food and agro processing as well as financial services – would probably take off a bit later down the road, he said.Dismissing critics who say Iskandar Malaysia is cannibalising or jeopardising Kuala Lumpur's present role, Ismail said the economic region offers an opportunity to venture into new territory and an alternative to the business community.In terms of new investments this year, Ismail said of the RM30 billion targeted, about RM5 billion would come from logistics and another big chuck from the manufacturing sector.On his aspirations for Iskandar Malaysia's future, he said as the economic region reaches maturity in 10 years' time, the people should be the biggest benefactor."It is like a dashboard with so many dials that you need to monitor, just like a pilot flying an aircraft cannot be looking at one dial."You have to see so many dials to make sure that the aircraft travels smoothly to its destination."The same goes for Iskandar Malaysia, that's why I always say that Iskandar Malaysia is a journey. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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