PUTRAJAYA: The East Coast Economic Region (ECER) attracted RM78 billion in investments and created 76,120 job opportunities between 2007 and end-June this year.
ECER Development Council (ECERDC) chief executive officer Datuk Seri Jebasingam Issace John said the investments - domestic and foreign - represent 71% of ECER's RM110 billion investment target by 2020.
Of the committed investments, he said, the manufacturing cluster was the biggest contributor with RM44.35 billion, followed by tourism (RM13.56 billion), bio-economy (RM5.62 billion) and oil, gas and petrochemicals (RM4.8 billion).
"ECER recorded RM6.3 billion in investments in the second quarter of 2015. This is more than half of its RM12 billion investment target for this year," he said in a statement released after the ECERDC Second Council Meeting for 2015 here on Thursday.
The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is also ECERDC chairman.
Jebasingam pointed out that the ECER was well on track to achieve the set target by the end of this year as it had shown positive results, as reflected in the surge of investments and the stronger pool of human capital and entrepreneurs.
Updating on the ECER second quarter 2015, he said ECERDC had attracted eight new investments in ECER amounting to RM2.59 billion, representing 21.6% of this year's investment target.
"The investments will create 4,832 new job opportunities for the people," he said.
He said ECER's industrial parks such as the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park, Pekan Automative Park, Gambang Halal Park and Pasir Mas Halal Park have attracted RM24.7 billion in investment commitments to date that would create 14,809 new job opportunities.
"The public investment has certainly paid off and this is reflected in the progress in developing local talents in ECER through programmes such as empower ECER, entrepreneur ECER, ECER Talent Enchancement Programme and TERAJU@ECER," he said.
He added that ECERDC's human capital and entreprenuer development programmes have benefited over 48,000 locals in ECER and created more than 9,000 entreprenuers, 80% of whom are women.
After the meeting, Najib also witnessed ECERDC exchanging memorandum of understanding (MoU) and collaboration documents with four universities -Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), Swansea University from the United Kingdom, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin of Terengganu (Unisza) and Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK).
Under the MoU, UMP and Swansea University will pave the way for industry-academia collaborations in the ECER, while promoting academic and research partnerships between both unniversities.
In a statement, ECERDC said Unisza, UMK and UMP will be appointed as the training providers for ECER's Skills and Entrepreneurship Training Programme in Terengganu, Kelantan dan Pahang.
"The ECER Programme is designed primarly for unemployed graduates, low-income working adults and single mothers, with skills training and entrepreneurship development knowledge, in a bid to enchance their marketability and employability," it said.
ECERDC said the scheme has been implemented at 20 locations, and has benefited over 33,400 rural students through the Academic Training Programme and more than 11,600 adults under the Skills and Entrepreneurship Training Programme respectively.
Najib also witnessed the exchange of documents between ECERDC and eight new investors. - Bernama
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