Johor-Singapore SEZ meant to be a ‘regional champion,’ not just an ‘industrial park with a nicer brochure’

SINGAPORE: Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong once called the special economic zone between Singapore and Johor a “substantial and promising project,” a characterization echoed more recently at the Fortune Innovation Forum in Kuala Lumpur last week.

The chair of the Johor State Investment, Trade, Consumer Affairs, and Human Resources Committee, YB Lee Ting Han, said that the SEZ will be more than an “industrial park with a nicer brochure.”

“We really need to be able to connect our SMEs to global supply chains and to create brands owned within the zone. For the long run, we have to look at how we are going to create a regional champion,” Fortune quotes him as saying, adding that “special matters require execution.”

So far, the SEZ’s investments were at an eye-watering RM56 billion (S$17.6 billion) for the first six months of this year. Mr Lee, however, is expecting that this will grow to RM100 billion (S$31.5 billion) by the end of 2025.

In comparison, for all of 2024, Johor saw just RM48.5 billion (S$15.3 billion) in investments.

Mr Lee added that what sets the Johor-Singapore SEZ apart is the assurance of long-term returns and sustainable investment opportunities, Fortune reported.

“Collectively, we can work on a five- to ten-year time frame so that investors can have more clarity, so that it can survive at least one investment cycle, and they can recover their capital.”

He also touched on the improvements to train services that would make travelling between the two countries easier, especially given that the Singapore-Johor causeway is arguably the busiest in the world.

“We are doing some infrastructure improvements that connect Johor and Singapore via rail services. This can transit about 10,000 people per hour per direction, and this should be operational by January 2027,” Mr Lee said, adding that around 150,000 Malaysians have signed up for the QR code clearance system between the two countries. By the end of the year, he expects this number to reach half a million.

“The JS-SEZ will tap into the complementary strengths of both countries to foster economic connectivity by improving cross-border flows of goods, investments, and people,” the leaders of both nations said in a statement issued at the 10th Singapore-Malaysia Leaders’ Retreat, which was held in Singapore on Oct 30, 2023. /TISG

Read also: JS-SEZ a ‘once-in-a-generation opportunity’ for cross-border investors, says CGSI analyst