Four more theme parks for Iskandar Malaysia

Iskandar Regional Development Authority chief executive officer Datuk Ismail Ibrahim.

KULAIJAYA: Plans are in the pipeline to turn Iskandar Malaysia into a regional theme park hub with more theme parks to be set up in the economic growth corridor.

Iskandar Regional Development Authority (Irda) chief executive officer Datuk Ismail Ibrahim (pic) said the growth corridor would have eight theme parks within the next three to five years.

He said talks were going on between Irda and theme park operators from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Europe and North America to set up their theme parks in Iskandar Malaysia.

“The size of the new theme parks will range between 20.23 ha and 40.46ha and they could be either outdoor or indoor theme parks,” Ismail told a press conference at the launch of the SME City @ Indahpura here.

He said the eight parks included the existing Legoland Malaysia Theme Park, the Hello Kitty Indoor Theme @ Puteri Harbour, the Angry Birds @ JBCC and the water theme park currently under construction at Taman Mount Austin.

Ismail said that the developer of the theme park in Taman Mount Austin was now in discussion with an international theme park operator to introduce the brand name at the park.

“The theme parks in Iskandar Malaysia will cater for all age groups and the whole family including youngsters, teenagers and adults,” said Ismail.

He said one of the theme parks would be an indoor IT-based theme park similar to a theme park in Japan, which was popular with the IT-savvy youths and those into video games.

Ismail said the investment for the new theme parks ranged from RM500mil per project and could go up to RM1bil depending on the size of the theme park.