IRDA to hold more open days in Iskandar Malaysia

15 July 2010 , By The Star

The Iskandar Regional Development Authority (Irda) will continue to organise its open day regularly in different locations within Iskandar Malaysia (IM).

The company’s chief executive officer Ismail Ibrahim said this would create better awareness to Johoreans, particularly on the progress and development in the country’s first economic growth corridor.

To date, Irda has organised four open days since Iskandar Malaysia’s inception on Nov 4, 2006, and had planned to hold a fifth event in Pontian this October.

The first two events were held at the Johor Baru City Square shopping mall and Persada Johor International Convention Centre in Johor Baru in May and October 2009, respectively.

A third roadshow was held at IOI Mall shopping complex in Bandar Putra Kulai in May this year and the fourth event took place recently at the Pasir Gudang Town Centre.

“By having the event in different locations, we hope to better reach the public in disseminating the latest information on IM to them,” said Ismail.

He said this would also help to dismiss negative opinions by certain quarters that the IM stakeholders are only focusing on areas in Johor Baru and Nusajaya.

The Iskandar region spans over 2,217sq km covers the southernmost part of Johor with five flagship development zones — Zone A - JB City Centre, Zone B - Nusajaya, Zone C - Western Gate Development, Zone D - Eastern Gate Development and Zone E - Senai-Kulai.

Ismail added that Pasir Gudang – which came under Zone D, was chosen for the fourth event, as the area was prominent in the logistics, services, petrochemical and oleochemical activities.

“Apart from updating the latest progress on the IM, jobseekers could also seek employment in IM and get in touch with participating companies.”

He said under the Iskandar Malaysia Comprehensive Develop-ment Plan (2006-2-25), the growth corridor would create some 800,000 job opportunities in manufacturing, educational, tourism, healthcare, financial, logistics services, ICT and the creative industries.