Apr 06 2007
Malaysia has dropped a plan to create an immigration free zone in a multibillion-dollar industrial park project in the southern state of Johor, bordering Singapore, newspapers reported Friday. Johor Chief Minister Abdul Ghani Othman said an area that allowed foreigners to come and go without passing immigration would no longer be set up because such a zone was not necessary to encourage investment.
“The (free access zone) no longer exists. It was just a proposal, but we do not need it,” the New Straits Times quoted Ghani as saying at a conference on the Iskandar development project in the state Thursday.
The immigration free zone, envisaged as an incentive to attract investors, was severely criticized recently by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who said it would compromise national sovereignty.
Ghani also assured ethnic Malays that they would not be marginalized even though investors in some Iskandar projects will be exempt from a government policy requiring businesses to have Malay partners holding at least 30 percent equity.
The compulsory equity policy – part of an affirmative action program that gives special rights to Malays – will only be abrogated in less than 7 sq. miles, or less than 1 percent of the project’s total area, Ghani said, according to the New Straits Times.
An aide to Ghani, who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the press, confirmed the reports Friday. According to the government, the 47-billion-ringgit ($14 billion) project, which was launched late last year, is Malaysia’s largest of its kind. Once completed, the zone would be almost three times the size of Singapore, with which Malaysia competes for economic and cultural clout.
Other Articles That May Interest You …
|
|
April 6th, 2007 by financetwitter
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Comments
Add your comment now.
Leave a Reply