M'SIAN EAST COAST ECONOMIC CORRIDOR CREATES 220,000 JOBS, ATTRACT US$25.8

PEKAN (Malaysia) Aug 4 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian East Coast Economic Region
Special Economic Zone (ECER SEZ) is expected to create more than 220,000 job
opportunities and attract US$25.8 bln (RM90 billion) domestic and international
investments by 2020.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said here Tuesday that ECER SEZ is the
first special economic zone in Malaysia.

Pekan, is the royal town in Malaysia's east coast of Pahang, Najib's home
State.

Najib said four free zones would be created in ECER SEZ to encourage and
promote chains between industry clusters that would give significant impact on
the ECER economy, namely High Value Manufacturing, Agro-based Industry; Gas and
Petrochemical; Tourism/Real Estate; and Knowledge/Education and ICT as well as
Logistiscs.

Although physically, the zones make up only six percent of the total ECER
area, it has a very big economic impact including its capacity to contribute 50
percent of the job opportunities as compared to ECER as a whole and contribute
80 percent of the economic products for the whole of ECER.

In this regard, Najib said the Kuantan Port would also be upgraded and
expanded so that it would be capable of handling more than 30 million metric
tonnes of cargo annually by 2020 from 16.8 million metric tonnes now.

It would also be able to play its roles as a major port in the East Coast
and a trade gateway for the Asia Pacific market.

Besides that, Najib also announced that the ECER Development Council had
kicked off the Agropolitan project -- an integrated development project whose
main objective is to eradicate poverty among local residents.
-- BERNAMA