What’s the deal with Iskandar Malaysia? It was Malaysia’s first economic growth corridor, a multibillion Ringgit development, designed to provide a substantial and sustainable catalyst for the local and national economy. They’ve even got an awesome motto!
‘A Strong and Sustainable Metropolis of International Standing’ by the year 2025.
We cover in greater detail about this mega project, and what it has in store for the country.
What is Iskandar Malaysia?
Iskandar Malaysia is an ambitious economic initiative which aims to develop a substantial and valuable growth corridor in Malaysia’s Johor region.
That ambition today stretches over a designated region of 4,749 sq km – almost six-times the entire area of nearby neighbour Singapore!
This flagship economic development programme is designed to accelerate growth within Johor, encouraging investment and providing a substantial boost to the local economy – all of which generates wider benefits for the Malaysian society.
In summary: people invest loads of money, they build loads of awesome architecture, they make loads of money, the rest of the rakyat gets to benefit from the injection of more money into the economy!
Before you accuse us of really, really, reallyyy, oversimplifying the investment plan, let’s look at the strategy which is designed to accelerate the benefits for the region.
The idea of inclusive societal growth and circle of sustainability is at the core of the Iskandar Malaysia vision.
- Wealth generation: Working to ensure the people of the Johor region enjoy a stable and satisfying income. Unlocking opportunity to enhance productivity and value in the local economy.
- Wealth equity: Providing an inclusive form of growth that offers equal access to opportunity, while also ensuring a more equitable region. Generating a catalyst for improved job opportunities to grow incomes and lead to a better quality of life.
- Sustainable development: Optimising resource use to produce a low-carbon development opportunity. Working to focus on natural and man-made resources from the local region to ensure:
- Balanced regional growth
- Protection and enhancement of the natural world
- Optimising built environments
- Enhancing urban connectivity
- Integrating infrastructure resources
What is the history of Iskandar Malaysia?
Iskandar Malaysia was first launched in 2006, following encouraging research from the Khazanah Nasional research institute.
This research showed that accelerating growth in Johor was not only possible, it also offered huge potential.
Under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, the government set out five areas of development to stimulate economic growth in Malaysia.
What was then designated as the South Johor Economic Region (SJER), later becoming Iskandar Malaysia, was one of those areas.
The original scope of the development covered 2,217 square kilometres, encompassing the area of Johor Bahru alongside nearby districts. In this plan, the area was subdivided into five flagship development zones.
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Iskandar Malaysia –Development Zones
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Zone A
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JB City Centre
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Zone B
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Nusajaya
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Zone C
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Western Gate Development
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Zone D
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Eastern Gate Development
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Zone E
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Senai-Skudai
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The original plan aimed to encourage over RM383 billion investment into SJER, stimulating GDP growth of 8% per annum, and increasing GDP per capita to US$31,100 (roughly RM129,000) by 2025.
That initiative was designed to create more than 1.5 million jobs for the region’s expanding population. We suppose that if you’re going to be ambitious, you might as well aim for the stars!
What is the situation with Iskandar Malaysia today?
Since it was first launched 13 years ago, Iskandar Malaysia has attracted significant investment to the Johor region.
That investment has resulted in numerous major developments taking shape across the flagship development zones.
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Iskandar Malaysia – Notable Projects
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Zone A
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Zone B
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Zone C
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Zone D
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Zone E
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Between 2016 and the end of 2018, the total cumulative committed investment into Iskandar Malaysia stood at over RM285 billion!
That’s only a tiny bit short of Malaysia’s entire national GDP in 2017. So yeah, that’s enough to get some serious development completed.
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Iskandar Malaysia – Committed Investment 2016 to end-2018
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Domestic Investment
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RM194.81 billion (62%)
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Foreign Investment
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RM90.51 billion (38%)
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Top 5 Countries of Investment
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China, Singapore, United States, Japan, Spain
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What’s the future of Iskandar Malaysia?
Iskandar Malaysia remains on track to meet its targets as a sustainable investment centre by 2025, according to Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) CEO Datuk Ismail Ibrahim. And this year, that ambition took on an even bigger footprint!
In February 2019, it was announced that Iskandar Malaysia is set to double in size, expanding the extensive growth corridor to 4,749 sq km.
This newly expanded region will encompass parts of Kluang in central Johor, as well as Kota Tinggi in the east, and Pontian in the west.
it also includes the areas of Simpang Renggam and Renggam, Pengarang, as well as Desaru.
This ambitious new expansion aims to bring in more affordable opportunities for development, further accelerating growth in the area.
Modern agriculture is also set to play a large part in this wider development, providing new techniques and technologies to support agricultural growth in the region.
So, if next time you’re driving through Johor and you spot some robot workers out tending the fields, you’ve got a good idea why!
Does all this talk of investment and development speak to the secret property agent inside you? Well maybe it’s time to you thought about taking the dive yourself! Here’s our guide on How Do I Become A Property Agent In Malaysia.
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