JOHOR BAHRU - A NEW metropolis three times the size of
neighbouring Singapore is taking shape in the foothills of southern
Malaysia, where officials and investors have equally huge ambitions
for the city.
Dust billows across the horizon as sun-scorched construction
crews lay roads, drainage canals, street lamps, power stations and
other key installations for a development known as Iskandar
Malaysia.
Rolling terrain once covered with palm oil plantations and bush
has been bulldozed to make way for theme parks, luxury homes,
international schools, hotels, hospitals, a movie studio and a
business district by 2025.
In short, a new Singapore is being built in an area covering
2,217 sq km in Johor state. Iskandar, one of five 'economic growth
corridors' Malaysia is developing, was launched in 2006 and will
integrate existing towns, seaports and an airport with the new
projects being built from scratch.
But instead of pitting it as a rival to the rich city-state,
Malaysia is asking Singapore investors to take part in the
project.
'We see ourselves as collaborating because both countries
realise that in order to create more wealth and better distribution
of the wealth, we need each other,' said Ismail Ibrahim, chief
executive of the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA).
'Investors see Iskandar as something that is believable, something
that is working,' he told AFP.
-- AFP