Let's dig: Tee (middle), Shandong Daiyin Group chairman Zhao Huan Chen (second from left) and other guests performing the ground breaking of D&Y Textile (M) Sdn Bhd plant at Sedenak industrial park, Kulaijaya, Johor. - Photo by ZAZALI MUSA
KULAIJAYA: Johor wants to further strengthen and develop its cooperation in trade and tourism activities with China’s Guandong Province.
State Trade and Tourism executive councillor Datuk Tee Siew Kiong said Johor would step up its efforts to attract more companies and businesses there to invest in the state.
“Johor’s close proximity with Singapore is an added advantage and a strong selling point to attract more Chinese investors,” he said.
Tee said this at the ground breaking of D&Y Textile (M) Sdn Bhd located at the 283.27ha Sedenak industrial park here.
The RM652mil plant is located on a 22.56ha site and would start operating in March 2015, employing 1,200 workers to produce cotton yarns for export, mainly to China.
The Malaysian outfit, a subsidiary of the Shandong-based Daiyin Textile and Garment group, is the company’s second manufacturing plant outside China, with the first in Sri Lanka.
Daiyin Group is involved in textile and garment-related activities and is one of the top 20 companies in China in the industry with 10,000 employees.
“I’ve visited Shenzhen last month and Chinese companies there had expressed their interest to relocate or expand their operations to Johor,” he said.
Tee said three of them would invest millions of ringgit to set up their manufacturing facilities at Sedenak industrial park within the next one to two years, creating thousands of jobs opportunities for the locals.
Similarly, Johor also hoped to attract more tourists from Shenzhen as the latter was declared as Johor Baru’s sister city in 2006.
The term twin towns and sister cities are used to describe a form of cooperative agreement made between towns, cities, counties, oblasts, prefectures, provinces, regions, states and areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.
Shenzhen is a major city in the south of Southern China’s Guandong Province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong.
The area became China’s first and one of the most Special Economic Zone launched in 1980.
