Selangor to get RM15b infra works

PETALING JAYA: Selangor is expected to receive about RM15 billion worth of federal government infrastructure development projects over the next two years, said state executive councilor Dr Xavier Jayakumar.

He said of this amount, about RM7.4 billion is for three or four new highways to be built in the state.

“The rest will result from the My Rapid Transit (MRT) and light rail transit (LRT) extension projects.

“We are also looking at four huge developments, which involve 607.29ha of land each, to be developed this year,” he said at the Global Indian SMI/SME Forum & Networking Summit Malaysia 2012 here yesterday.

He said for the first 11 months of last year, Selangor had managed to secure a combined domestic direct investment (DDI) and foreign direct investment (FDI) of RM6.8 billion on the back of 218 manufacturing projects.

Xavier said these projects had created about 15,000 jobs in Selangor. This year, he said Selangor expects the DDI to balloon given that the amount of local development projects has increased tremendously.

“To increase the FDI, the strategy is to ask for foreign companies to invest in specific sectors such as the green technology, solar, information technology and research and development sectors,” he added.

On Malaysia’s GDP growth of 5.1% last year, Xavier said the Selangor government is happy as the target had been met.
“We hope to see the same kind of growth in future,” he said. — Bernama