SINGAPORE: Johor continues to see a good traction of investment coming from Singapore, providing a seamless journey for investors looking to expand their businesses in the southern state, said the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA).
MIDA Singapore director Vinothan Tulisinathzan said that among the major industries attracting investment from Singapore are the digital economy, semiconductor, and food and beverages (F&B) businesses.
He noted that investment opportunities in the digital economy within Johor fell into two main sections -- digital technology providers and digital infrastructure providers.
"In the digital technology provider (section), you have blockchains, artificial intelligence (AI), things like that, but you can see more traction in the digital infrastructure provider, which is the data centre players.
"Johor has an amazing traction in attracting data centres, and we are being more selective in data centres to be more AI, energy efficient and so forth,” he said.
He was speaking during a roundtable discussion entitled "How Johor and Singapore are reshaping cross-border investment” organised by Singapore Press Club and the Johor Economic, Tourism and Cultural Office Singapore (JETCO) on Monday.
According to Vinothan, MIDA also saw rising interest from Singaporean semiconductor players entering Johor, both from the back-end and front-end firms.
"Most importantly, we can see a good traction of the Singapore-based companies that are involved in the supply chain, and they could be the tier one or tier two,” he added.
Additionally, the agency witnessed growing interest among F&B operators in expanding their operations to Johor Bahru amid the rising cost of doing business.
"We have a company that has headquarters in Singapore, but it sets up a central kitchen in Johor, and it has a halal operation, which gives the company a competitive edge to export its products in the region and even in the Middle East,” he said.
Also present at the event were Malaysian High Commissioner to Singapore Datuk Azfar Mohamad Mustafar and JETCO executive chairman Datuk Seri Hasni Mohammad. - Bernama
