During the state assembly sitting, Lee said Johor had attracted over RM6bil in foreign and domestic direct investments in 2020 and 2021. — Photo courtesy of Johor Mentri Besar Office
JOHOR attracted RM6.591bil worth of investments, including RM3.818bil in foreign direct investment (FDI) last year, says state investment, trade and consumer affairs committee chairman Lee Ting Han.
He said in 2020, the state had received some RM6.784bil worth of investments, where RM2.58bil were from direct domestic investments while the remaining RM4.204bil were FDI.
“The state government has also reactivated the Johor Investment Committee, which acts as a communication and information sharing platform between departments, agencies and local councils with the private sector for investment related issues.
“The committee held its first meeting on June 9.
“We are planning to bring in more investments with cooperation from agencies such as Malaysian Investment Development Authority, Johor Petroleum Development Corporation, Iskandar Regional Development Authority, Iskandar Investment Berhad and Johor Corporation,” he said during the state assembly sitting at Bangunan Sultan Ismail in Kota Iskandar, Iskandar Puteri.
Lee added that the state government was also looking at ways to organise more international forums as a way to further promote Johor as an ideal investment destination.
“To raise the confidence of investors, we held several meetings with investment organisations and industry players through the Friendly Johor initiative.
“The initiative is to find out problems faced by them and to look for proactive and pragmatic solutions,” he said.
Lee was responding to a question from Aznan Tamin (BN-Tanjung Surat) who wanted to know the amount of investments received and efforts by the state government to increase investments.
State youth, sports, entrepreneurs’ development, cooperatives and human resources committee chairman Mohd Hairi Mad Shah said some 131 people had been appointed under the Malaysia Short-term Employment Programme (MyStep) to serve in Johor.
“From that number, 32 were placed at departments under the state government, 94 were placed at local councils while the remaining five were employed by state statutory bodies.
“Existing MyStep employees can apply to fill contract or permanent posts available through the Johor Public Services Commission or relevant government agencies.”
He was responding to a question from Haslinda Salleh (BN-Tenang) who wanted to know whether contract workers under MyStep could get a permanent post in Johor after working for over three years.
MyStep is one of the components under the Federal Government’s JaminKerja initiative.
It is a short-term contract employment programme in public sector and government-linked companies, and is managed by the National Economic Implementation and Strategic Coordination Agency under the Finance Ministry.
