China Railway To Invest US$2 Bln To Build Regional Centre In Bandar Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 (Bernama) -- China Railway Group Ltd (CREC) will invest US$2 billion (US$1 = RM4.07) to build its regional centre in Bandar Malaysia here. Its President, Zhang Zongyan, said China's state-owned company, a Global Fortune 500 company which was ranked 71st in 2015, would consolidate all its current regional businesses and operations once its new headquarters in Bandar Malaysia was completed. "CREC will build an integrated office complex in Bandar Malaysia which is destined to become the regional hub for multinational companies (MNCs) from around the world. "We will be the first among MNCs to set up regional centres or relocate headquarters (HQs) in Malaysia and we will showcase this through the new integrated office complex we are building," he said. Zhang announced this in the presence of Prime Minister Najib Razak, Johor Menteri Besar (chief minister) Mohamed Khaled Nordin and several cabinet ministers at a ceremony here Monday. Najib signed a plaque marking CREC's commitment to have its regional office here. Also present were Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang and Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH) Executive Vice Chairman Lim Kang Hoo. Meanwhile, IWH Director, Izaddeen Daud, said CREC's announcement to set up its regional HQ in Bandar Malaysia came exactly three months after its successful bid with IWH last December to acquire 60 per cent of the equity in the Bandar Malaysia project from 1MDB Real Estate (RE) for RM7.41 billion. "The Bandar Malaysia development is now under the public-private partnership (PPP) model with the Ministry of Finance (MOF) holding 40 per cent of the development company and the lWH-CREC consortium holding 60 per cent equity," he said. IWH is also a PPP company with the Malaysia's Johor State Government, through Kumpulan Prasarana Rakyat Johor (KPRJ), owning 40 per cent of the company and 60 per cent owned by Credence Resource Sdn Bhd, a company controlled by Lim (Lim Kang Hoo). This shareholding structure effectively means that about 54 per cent of the project is now owned by the Federal and Johor state governments via 1MDB RE/MOF and KPRJ respectively, said Izaddeen. "With the involvement of leading Chinese and Malaysian government-linked companies, the Bandar Malaysia development has now naturally also become a government-to-government project," he said. Bandar Malaysia, when completed, will serve as Malaysia's gateway to the world through the rail to Singapore and the proposed Pan-Asean Rail to Bangkok and beyond. The development blueprint also includes an integrated underground city model after Canada's Montreal underground city, with dedicated space for financial and commercial centres, tourism and shopping facilities, high-end corporate offices, theme park and themed theatres. -- BERNAMA