Terengganu menteri besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar said the investments included businesses involved in iron and steel manufacturing, napier cultivation, pulp mills and food containers, adding that it created 5,000 job opportunities for locals.
According to Samsuri, the value of the investments represented 57% of the RM4.2 billion investment target set by ECERDC for Terengganu this year.
“ECERDC also managed to attract new committed investments worth a total of RM1.02 billion. These comprise RM940 million in the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors; services (RM50 million); tourism (RM20 million) and manufacturing (RM10 million) as of March.
“A total of 65% involved foreign direct investments (FDIs) with the highest investment received from Japan, amounting to RM660 million,” he said in a statement after chairing a meeting of the implementation and coordination committee (ICC) of the East Coast Economic Region (ECER) here today.
Also present at the ICC meeting were Terengganu state secretary Tengku Farok Hussin Tengku Abdul Jalil; secretary of the development division of the Prime Minister’s Department, Jazmanie Shafawi; and ECERDC chief executive officer Baidzawi Che Mat.
Baidzawi said the ICC meeting also discussed the development of the recreational vehicle (RV) industry in an effort to make Malaysia an RV hub in the Asia Pacific region by 2025.
He added that several locations have been identified to be developed as RV parks in Terengganu.
“ECERDC has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a leading power generation company from China.
“As for the new Kuala Terengganu airport road, the status of the project is at 37% as of February 2024,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a separate ceremony, Baidzawi also completed the handing over of Surau Al-Ikhwan Teluk Ketapang to the state religious affairs department and the Teluk Ketapang kindergarten to the state community development department.
He said the two infrastructures worth almost RM1 million will benefit about 2,000 residents around Kampung Teluk Ketapang and nearby areas.
“The surau and kindergarten are part of the airport road project, which is being implemented at a total cost of RM28 million by the federal government through the ECERDC.”