Johor to attract more capital intensive industries

12 August 2010 , By The Star

The Johor government aims to attract more capital-intensive industries in a bid to steer the state to become a high-income economy, said Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman.

He said Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in the form of capital-intensive industries, which utilise highly skilled workforce, would be one of the state government’s main focus.

“If we want to achieve a high-income economy status, we must strive for a change and cannot be labour-intensive.

“Capital-intensive industries using skilled workers will increase the efficiency of production,” he told newsmen after launching Welding Alloys (Far East) Sdn Bhd new premises on Friday.

Abdul Ghani said the state government was also formulating new strategies to further attract more FDI for the state.

“We are making sure that local authorities are taking care of industrial areas and the quality of infrastructure.

“We are also providing lands for prospective companies to set up their operations here,” he said.

He added that the state government was confident of foreign investments especially from Singapore’s small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).

“The state can offer benefits to these businesses (Singapore’s SMEs) coming here because of the high cost of operations in Singapore.

“Thus, the push factor from Singapore is quite strong and we believe more Singapore SMEs are going to invest in Johor,” he said.

Abdul Ghani said the state was also developing new clusters such as the Oil and Gas clusters in eastern Johor.

“Eastern Johor was chosen due to the industry’s need for deepwater as well as dedicated jetties.

“We are also putting a greater emphasis on high-tech and services industries within Iskandar Malaysia,” he said.

Welding Alloys (Far East) Sdn Bhd managing director Dominic Charles Stekly said the company was confident of investing in Johor since 1982 given its strategic location for transport and logistics.

“Our company’s location in Johor Baru is excellent as it is near the Tanjung Pelepas Port (PTP) and Johor Port in Pasir Gudang.

“We rely heavily on shipping our products as it is too heavy for air transport,” he said, adding that Malaysia was also investor friendly since tax was not imposed on import of raw materials.