ISKANDAR PUTERI: The closure of international borders due to the Covid-19 pandemic has caused Johor to suffer a RM5.74bil decline in investments this year compared to last year.
Johor investment, cooperatives, entrepreneurship development and human resource committee chairman Datuk Mohd Izhar Ahmad said that between January and September this year, the state government received a total of RM5.71bil in investments from the manufacturing and industrial sector, 50.1% less than in 2019.
“From that number, RM3.39bil is from foreign investment while RM2.32bil is from domestic investment in the manufacturing and industrial sector.
“In comparison, last year we have received RM11.45bil in investment for the sector, with about RM6.53bil from foreign investment and RM4.91bil from domestic investment, ” he said during the Johor State Assembly here at Bangunan Sultan Ismail in Kota Iskandar.
He was replying to Datuk Sharifah Azizah (BN-Penawar) and Ee Chin Li (PH-Tangkak) who asked about the investments received by the state for 2019 and 2020.
Izhar added that the sector that saw the most significant drop was petroleum and petrochemical with a decline of RM2.18bil.
“However, we were able to increase investment in several other sectors including the textile industry, furniture industry and rubber products, ” he said.
On a separate matter, Johor housing and local government committee chairman Ayub Jamil said 4,445 units of affordable houses would be completed in 2021.
“The state government has built some 11,128 units of affordable between 2018 and 2020. For next year, we expect to have 4,445 more units for the people of Johor.
“We have outlined several strategies to reach the target as well as to encourage more developers to build affordable homes for the people here, ” he said in response to Hahasrin Hashim (BN-Panti), who asked about the state’s affordable homes initiative.
He added that as of Oct 31, some 4,230 homeowners had received units through open balloting, with 3,775 units to be given out to eligible buyers next year.
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