PKFZ DRAWS OVER US$264 MLN INVESTMENT, SAYS TRANSPORT MINISTER

PORT KLANG (Malaysia), March 2 (Bernama) -- The Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ)
has attracted more than RM900 million (US$264.7 million) investment, offering
over 1,000 job opportunities to date.

The more than 50 investors in PKFZ were involved in various activities
spanning from manufacturing, trading, logistics and general services, said
Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat.

In fact, one of the world's largest manufacturers of subsea oil and gas
equipment, Aker Solutions of Norway, set foot in PKFZ in 2007 and positioned
Port Klang as its base for the Asia Pacific region, he said in a speech read out
by Port Klang Authority Chairman Lee Hwa Beng at the PKFZ Chinese New Year
Open House here Tuesday.

"The efforts in promoting PKFZ as the preferred logistics and distribution
hub have started to bear fruit with the emergence of the London Metal Exchange
and cotton distribution hubs in PKFZ," he said.

He said the potential growth of cargo volumes in PKFZ arising from the
continuous flow of investments and the spin-off activities was expected to
contribute substantially to the future throughput of Port Klang and the overall
economic development in Pulau Indah.

Ong said that despite the negative publicity surrounding the project, PKFZ
had recorded impressive growth of cargo over the last three years.

"In 2007, only 1,581 TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) of containers and
34,175 tonnes of cargo were handled in PKFZ.

"The volume handled in 2009 has increased tremendously to 43,032 TEUs and
1.28 million tonnes of cargo, representing a growth of 372 per cent and 223 per
cent respectively," he said.

Ong said the government recently embarked on various initiatives to review
the relevant procedures to ease the process of doing business here.

Among them was to revamp the current set up of one-stop agency and the
procedures relating to investment facilitation and cargo movements between
PKFZ, the port terminals and principal customs area, he said.

He said that beginning Feb 1 this year, cargo movements between PKFZ and
Borth Port by rail or road could be facilitated using a more simplified form.

PKFZ is located on a 405-ha site and was labelled by certain quarters as a
White Elephant Project with its questionable development cost at RM4.6 billion
(US$1.35 billion) funded via soft land from the Finance Ministry.

It comprises 256-ha open space for factory/warehouse, 512 light
industrial units and 500,000 sg ft office space for rent, 135 hotel rooms and an
exhibition centre.
-- BERNAMA