Iskandar Malaysia growth corridor doubles in size

This underlines the urgent need for Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad(pic) to raise money for government coffers, depleted by a fiscal deficit and a massive debt from a multi-bil dollar scandal, under the previous government, at state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

JOHOR BARU: The Iskandar Malaysia growth corridor has now doubled in size and will include at least two new districts.

The region was 2,217 sq/km during its inception 13 years ago and will now cover an area of 4,749 sq/km, which includes parts of Kota Tinggi, Kluang and Pontian.

The decision to expand the region was made during the 24th Members of Authority (MoA) meeting of the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA).

"The progress Iskandar has steadily charted since 2006 has been truly spectacular and will be key in helping Malaysia to reclaim its leadership as an Asean Tiger," said IRDA co-chairman Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pic),

"As the agency driving the development of Iskandar, I remain optimistic on the role and responsibilities of IRDA in supporting the development of Johor and the nation's agenda," Dr Mahathir said in a statement on Friday (Feb 22).

IRDA CEO Datuk Ismail Ibrahim said that the MoA believed that with the larger area, Iskandar should be able to offer more land for development at an affordable cost and at the same time bring modern agriculture as one of its new promoted sectors.

In terms of economic growth, Iskandar recorded commitment investments of RM32.23bil in 2018 with RM22.03bil realised so far.

Since the corridor started in 2006 until Dec 31, 2018, the corridor has attracted a total of RM285.34bil in investments.

"To date local investors contributed 62% of the investments with RM194.81bil while the balance was from foreign investors," the statement said.

Among the top foreign investors include China, Singapore, the United States, Japan and Spain.

From 2006 to 2018, the services sector of tourism, education, finance, healthcare, creative and logistics recorded a total of RM28.9bil which includes emerging technology.

The MoA also supported Iskandar Malaysia's strong global supply linkages by becoming the home for the first Asean Industrial Hub, which supports the nation's aspiration for Asean integration.