Country Garden stresses that all foreign purchases comply with Malaysian laws and regulations

PETALING JAYA (Aug 27): Country Garden Pacificview Sdn Bhd, the master developer of Forest City in Iskandar Malaysia, Johor, reiterated that all its property transactions comply with all Malaysian laws and regulations and have the necessary approvals to be sold to foreign purchasers.

"Pursuant to Section 433B of the National Land Code, a foreign citizen or a foreign company may acquire land in Malaysia subject to the prior approval of the State Authority [having] been obtained.

"We do not issue any Permanent Residency (PR) to foreign buyers of Forest City,” the developer stressed in an official statement in response to an earlier news report.

According to Reuters, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Malaysia will not allow foreigners to purchase residential units in Forest City and grant visas enabling them to live there.

Country Garden Pacificview Sdn Bhd is the developer and operator of Forest City Project, which is a joint venture company between Hong Kong-listed Country Garden Group and Johor state government-owned Esplanade Danga 88 Sdn Bhd.

"We are currently in touch with the Prime Minister’s Office for clarifications, as we believe Tun Mahathir’s comments may have been taken out of context in certain media reports,” said the company.

According to the press statement, Mahathir’s comment does not correspond with the content of the meeting between the premier and Country Garden Holdings founder and chairman Yeung Kwok Keung on August 16, prior the former's visit to Beijing.

During the meeting, Mahathir reiterated that he welcomes foreign investments which could create employment opportunities, promote technology transfer and innovations that could benefit Malaysia’s economic growth and job creation.