Iskandar expected to receive more foreign investments

JOHOR BARU:  Iskandar Malaysia is poised to receive more foreign investments, especially from Indonesia and Singapore, following the aggressive promotions undertaken by the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA).

Chief executive Datuk Ismail Ibrahim said IRDA has, of late, been mounting visits to Surabaya, Semarang and Jakarta to lure investors to the special economic zone.

“We hope to draw the attention of Indonesian businessmen planning to expand their business to invest in Iskandar Malaysia,” he told reporters here last Friday.

Ismail said IRDA was promoting to Indonesia investments in the manufacturing and services sectors like tourism, education and health.

Besides these countries, focus would also be placed on attracting investors from Japan and South Korea who had already shown initial interest to invest in Iskandar Malaysia.

“Japan and South Korea and several developed countries are always interested to invest in the manufacturing and services sectors and we are also looking in that direction for the long term,” he said.

Ismail also said those investing in the development corridor are also encouraged to adopt the state-of-the-art technology and utilise professional and skilled manpower especially in the manufacturing sector.

IRDA, he said would continue to draw more investors to the region and step up its promotion exercises.

Iskandar Malaysia has attracted new investments of RM7.56 billion in the second quarter of the year against RM5 billion registered in the first quarter.

This has brought the committed cumulative investments to more than RM18.93 billion between 2006 and June 2013. — Bernama


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on July 22, 2013.