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Work groups to look into Singapore-Malaysia
cooperation in the IDR
July 24, 2007
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Singapore and Malaysia will set up four work groups to
look into better cooperation in Johor's Iskandar Development region
or IDR.
This resulted in the First Joint Ministerial
Committee meeting held at Pulai Springs Resort in Johor Baru on
Monday.
The workgroups will look into facilitating
immigration clearance, enhancing transportation links, tourism
cooperation and environmental collaboration.
To find out
what can be done to facilitate immigration clearance for potential
investors in the Iskandar Development Region, Shereena Sajeed spoke
to George Abraham, Chairman of the GA Group in Singapore.
GA: I think the main problem that Singaporeans face is
the ability to get across the causeway the shortest time possible
with the least difficulty. And the old causeway in the north is
really a problem because you have all kinds of traffic that go
through it. So one would have to find a better way to facilitate the
ravel and make it smoother. One solution would probably be to issue
smart cards or have a special clearance system with a few lanes for
people who are having investments in IDR so they can use the Tuas
causeway and breeze through special channels so they can get across
quickly and this will probably have to be done on both sides.
How can transportation links be enhanced?
GA:
Unfortunately we have at the moment only the two causeways, the old
one off Woodlands and the other one which is off Tuas. And I think
it’s a matter of how to organize the existing causeways to get the
maximum benefits and it looks like the easiest would be to work with
the Tuas causeway because the IDR project extends all the way to
Tanjong Pelapas and extends to Senai. So it would be easier for
Singaporeans to use the expressways that we currently have for
example, the Kranji or the PIE or the AYE, which are all no root
points that can lead to Tuas and use the Tuas as the link to Johor
Bahru. I would imagine that a large section of the people who want
to use this would be people who, after living in Singapore but would
want to have investments in Johor, especially in manufacturing or
other related areas and might want to travel up and down everyday.
One really has to look at the transportation becoming much
easier.
One of the working groups will look into Tourism
cooperation between Singapore and Malaysia in the IDR. What kind of
potential is there in this?
GA: We all know that many of
the tourists who come to Singapore also contemplate short visits to
Malaysia. In fact, we already have ongoing tours that go across the
causeway and they have a look at some of the tourism places closer
to Singapore like Malacca and even in Johor and other places. And I
think if we have a concerted effort to try and tap into the existing
facilities and the new ones that are upcoming, we can have a
relationship where people can fly into Singapore and take advantage
of the natural scenery and the surroundings that Malaysia has to
offer especially with the new resources that they are planning in
the IDR have come along the line of what has been projected.
What kind of environmental cooperation can we expect the
working group to look into?
GA: I think it would have to
cover a few fronts. One, would of course be the natural stretch of
water which separates the straits of Johor from the Singapore
straits. And the avoidance of pollution in these waters because it
affects both the states. The other would of course be to ensure that
the factory and the other amenities that are being built, especially
the tourism amenities, resorts and so on have access to clean water
and therefore, the environmental situation in the IDR does not
drastically impact on the coastal areas as well as the geographical
areas that IDR occupies.
Singapore’s National
Development Minister Mah Bow Tan has said that the workgroups will
be tasked to look into specific collaborative projects. What do you
think these will be?
GA: I would like to go back to the
point that I made earlier, which I think is a win-win scenarios for
both Johor and Singapore, where we can look at Singaporeans who live
in Singapore but invest in Johor, in the various opportunities that
are envisaged in the IDR and there are many reasons for this. It is
much cheaper for them to run factories and other businesses in Johor
where the cost of land, labour and utilities are much lower and also
because the value of the Malaysian ringgit is lower than the
Singapore dollar, they can use facilities and services in both the
states, it will ensure that both investments are
profitable. |
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