UEM World Berhad, through its subsidiary UEM Land Sdn Bhd (UEM Land), yesterday expressed optimism at the progress of the Nusajaya regional city in Johor.  

Speaking in Kuala Lumpur, UEM Land chief executive officer, Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim, unveiled how Nusajaya - currently home to a population of 100,000 - is set to catalyse the growth of Peninsula Malaysia's southernmost state of Johor, by 2011. According to Wan Abdullah, Nusajaya's development will be boosted by the completion of the Johor state administrative centre, which is due for occupation in the first quarter of 2008.

He went on to touch on other development centres, including the industrial and logistics cluster, the industrial development for advance technology corporations - which the company began selling this year - and its three residential developments. Nusajaya will also house three main residential projects — Horizon Hills, Nusa Idaman and Puteri Harbour — with a gross development value (GDV) of RM4.55 billion. Horizon Hills has a GDV of RM2.6 billion, Nusa Idaman RM450 million and Residential North precinct of Puteri Harbour RM1.5 billion.

Nusa Indaman, which comprise medium cost housing, has been completed. UEM Land now looks forward to the addition of other new mega-projects, such as the international resort that will house the theme park and medical city. 

Echoing Wan Abdullah's sentiments was Khazanah Nasional Bhd managing director, Datuk Azman Mokhtar.  He was confident that the Iskandar Development Region (IDR) - which requires an investment of US$105 billion (RM351.75 billion) over a 20-year period - would witness more activities from 2008 onwards.

Azman also divulged that to-date, three blue chip, Gulf-based investors were already pumping in US$12 billion for land and basic infrastructure in the IDR. Khazanah is currently wooing investors from China, India and other countries to participate in other key catalyst developments in this new region.

Furthermore, negotiations with the Singaporean government in identifying mutually beneficial areas of development - including a Smartcard system, common Customs, Immigrations and Quarantine (CIQ) and potential MRT and transportation links, are ongoing.

Unsurprisingly, Azman is upbeat on the benefits the IDR stands to offer, noting the considerable progress made over the previous year.