Hit Counter: 0

IIB changing strategies to woo investors

[ 02-04-2009 ]
IIB changing strategies to woo investors

IIB is focusing on the health and education services sectors to drive development at Iskandar Malaysia

JOHOR BARU: Iskandar Investment Bhd (IIB) is adopting several changes in its strategies to attract investors to Iskandar Malaysia during the current global economic downturn.

Managing director Arlida Ariff said unlike one or two years ago, ensuring a continuous flow of investments to Iskandar was now less smooth sailing.

“The main challenge for us is keeping up with the subtle changes in the market trend worldwide in the various sectors,” she said in an interview with

The main role of the government-backed IIB, which was incorporated on Nov 3, 2006, is to drive commercial initiatives within the 2,217 sq km in Iskandar via joint ventures or contribution of land.

IIB has a paid-up capital of RM113.2mil. Khazanah Nasional Bhd holds 60% equity while the Employees Provident Fund and the Johor government-linked entity Kumpulan Prasarana Rakyat Johor each have 20% stake.

Arlida said when Iskandar Development Region was launched on Nov 4, 2006 and renamed Iskandar Malaysia in April 2008, one area that IIB wanted to focus on was the financial sector.

However, after the credit crunch and the financial crisis affected the United States and Europe beginning September 2008, the sector has become lowest in priority for IIB.

Financial services was one of four new pillars added to the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) of Iskandar from 2006-2025 – the others were health services, educational services, and information and communications technology, and creative industries.

The five existing main pillars in the CDP are electrical and electronics, petrochemical and oleo chemical, food and agro processing, logistic and related services, and tourism.

“We are focusing on health and education services as the two segments are the least affected during the current economic downturn,” Arlida said.

She opined that more health-related issues such as stress, depression and hypertension would surface during an economic recession, while retrenched workers would go back to school to upgrade their skills for better employment opportunities when the economy recovered.

She said IIB would be working closely with its partners this year in more aggressively promoting and marketing Iskandar to new investors.

“Obviously everybody is hunkering down and investors will consider more factors before committing to new purchases or investments,” she said.

However, Arlida said it was not all gloom and doom as there were many high-profile cash-rich individuals shopping for properties, even during the current economic downturn.

She said IIB recently played host to an Australian with A$1.2bil cash who had shown strong interest to invest in Iskandar.

Arlida said what needed to be done now was to find more individuals like him and convince them to park their money, or participate, in IIB’s projects in Iskandar.

She said IIB would adopt a more personal approach by going directly to potential investors rather than mounting a massive campaign like before.

Arlida said presently, IIB’s major investors were from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and it was fortunate as they were not badly exposed to the global credit crunch as those from Dubai.

“Nevertheless, they are more careful now and taking steps to optimise the cost but this will not jeopardise their investment commitment in Iskandar,” she said.

The presence of Middle Eastern investors is prevalent in Medini, an area of 930.77ha within Nusajaya development zone, one of the five flagship zones in Iskandar.

They are Mubadala Development Co, ALDAR Properties PJSC, Kuwait Finance House and Millennium Development International.

The overall development in Medini is divided into three distinct clusters with separate themes: lifestyle and leisure, cultural cluster and the Iskandar financial district.

Arlida said IIB would also be looking at Asean countries, especially Singapore and Indonesia, for their active participation in Iskandar.

She said IIB was still trying to define the iconic project that Singapore planned to have in Iskandar as announced by its Premier Lee Hsien Loong during his meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the sidelines of the Apec summit in Peru last year.

“Hopefully, we can get more details from Singapore at the Malaysia-Singapore Ministerial Committee meeting for Iskandar development in Kuala Lumpur next month,” she said.

Source: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/3/31/business/3579123&sec=business

117214123105.gif113603093720.gif109523185719.gif114415112723.gif109523185540.gif112730114539.gif111622114032.gif116608155242.gif