KUALA LUMPUR: The East Coast Economic Region (ECER)has successfully attracted RM73.04 billion in investments from 2007 until March this year.
At the same time, the government allocated RM6.6 billion for implementation of high-impact projects in it, through the East Coast Economic Region Development Council (ECERDC).
The allocation was under the 9th and 10th Malaysia Plans to transform the region into an investment destination of choice.
“The public investment, which covers strategic infrastructure projects as well as human capital and entrepreneurship development programmes, has certainly paid off with ECER successfully attracted the RM73.04 billion investments from 2007 until March this year.
“The investments will create 73,708 new job opportunities for the people and represents 66 per cent of ECER’s RM110 billion investment target by 2020,” ECER said in a statement today.
Sector-wise, the manufacturing cluster is the biggest contributor with RM39.8 billion, followed by tourism (RM13.5 billion), bio-economy (RM5.6 billion) and oil, gas and petrochemicals (RM4.8 billion).
Investments in ECER are not merely restricted to urban areas and the ECER Special Economic Zone (ECER SEZ) has also received investment commitments in rural areas such as Gua Musang (Kelantan), Besut (Terengganu), Jengka (Pahang) and Rompin (Mersing, Johor) among others.
It will create jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities for the local communities there.
In addition to well-known multinationals such as BASF PETRONAS Chemicals Sdn Bhd, Kaneka Corporation and Mercedes Benz, local small and medium-sized entrepreneurs (SMEs) are also among the ECER investors.
The Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park, the first industrial park in Malaysia to be jointly developed by both Malaysia and China, is also the first to be accorded the “National Industrial Park” status.
It has already attracted RM9.7 billion in investments.
“The positioning of the ECER Special Economic Zone as the investment gateway to the ASEAN and Asia Pacific markets, will be further strengthened upon completion of the Kuantan Port expansion, which is currently ongoing and expected to be completed by 2016.
“Moving forward, the focus will be on high-end sectors such as biotechnology, oil, gas and petrochemical, as well as information and communications technology that are able to expand the value chain and create more job and business opportunities for all Malaysians,” ECER said.
Meanwhile, ECERDC chief executive officer Datuk Seri Jebasingam Issac John said 2015 was very important, as it marks the final year of the 10th Malaysia Plan.
“As such the ECERDC will continue to give equal emphasis to the capital and people economy to ensure a balanced and inclusive development in the ECER, in line with our goal to accelerate the region’s social economic transformation and empowering the people,” he added.
The first meeting of the ECERDC for 2015 was chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at Parliament House this morning.
– Bernama