ISKANDAR HAS ATTRACTED RM128.2 BILLION SINCE 2006 ISKANDAR Malaysia has recorded total cumulative committed investments of RM128.21 billion between its inception in 2006 till last month, said Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin. He said the southern economic corridor managed to attract new investments worth RM9.28 billion in the third quarter of this year, compared with RM7.56 billion in the second quarter. Some 44 per cent, or RM55.81 billion, have already been realised. This shows that domestic and foreign investors are contributing real economic value to the country, he said at the launch of BioMalaysia and BioEconomy Asia Pacific 2013, here, yesterday. To date local investors have contributed RM83.4 billion (65 per cent) while foreign investors have brought in the balance of RM44.81 billion. The top five countries with highest investments in Iskandar Malaysia from January to June are Singapore, Spain, Japan, the United States and the Netherlands, said Mohamed Khaled, who is also the co-chairman of Iskandar Region Development Authority (IRDA). While the manufacturing sector recorded the highest investments at RM45.68 billion, he said the economic corridor also saw increasing investments in other sectors like electric and electronics, petrochemical and oleo-chemical, and food and agro-processing. This is followed by logistics (RM4.81 billion), tourism (RM2.5 billion), healthcare (RM2.59 billion), education (RM1.56 billion), financial services (RM0.6 billion) and creative industries (RM0.4 billion), he added. Other sectors that support the growth of the region include property development, in which the residential, retail and industrial segments collectively contributed cummulative investments of RM48.09 billion as at June this year. This was followed by utilities at RM12.64 billion; government investments, mainly in infrastructure and public works (RM8.31 billion); and emerging technologies (RM1.03 billion), said Mohamed Khaled. Meanwhile, IRDA chief executive Datuk Ismail Ibrahim said the corridor was en route to achieving the RM22 billion investment target. In fact, he said it may surpass the target this year. Up until the third quarter of this year, we already hit slightly above the RM20 billion mark, so we are optimistic of achieving RM22 billion and even surpass it, he said. Due to the escalated investment figure for Iskandar Malaysia, Ismail anticipated there was a need for the economic corridor to increase its annual investment target. The increase in the annual investment target, he said, would ensure Iskandar Malaysia achieves its overall target of attracting RM383 billion in investments by 2035. An increased target of RM24 billion to RM25 billion in investments annually for the region to begin in 2018 will continue until the economic corridor achieves its maturity stage in 2025, Ismail added. Read more: Iskandar has attracted RM128.2b since 2006 btimes.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/ISKMAL21/Article/#ixzz2j4svPvi5
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 03:30:24 +0000
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