Home 禄 Business 禄 Real Estate
Malaysia鈥檚 Forest City off limits to foreigners
Print Edition
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad yesterday declared that foreigners will not be granted visas to live in the giant Forest City real estate project on the country鈥檚 southern tip, a major threat to the marketing strategy for the development.
It is not his first broadside against the plan by Chinese developer Country Garden Holdings Co to create a new city that was envisaged to eventually house 700,000 people on reclaimed land near Singapore, but it could be his most damaging. The company has been targeting foreigners more than Malaysians for sales of the apartments.
A top official at the project told Reuters last week that in the weeks immediately after 93-year-old Mahathir came back to power, through a shock election victory in May, demand for the apartments had weakened, and that the uncertainty remained a concern.
Mahathir鈥檚 latest comments are likely to exacerbate those concerns.
鈥淥ne thing is certain, that city that is going to be built cannot be sold to foreigners,鈥 Mahathir said at a news conference yesterday in Kuala Lumpur in response to a question from Reuters. 鈥淲e are not going to give visas for people to come and live here.鈥
Mahathir, who was prime minister from 1981-2003, said the government鈥檚 objection was 鈥渂ecause it was built for foreigners, not built for Malaysians. Most Malaysians are unable to buy those flats.鈥
Country Garden Pacificview Sdn Bhd, the joint venture between Country Garden and the Johor state government that is developing Forest City, said in a statement it is in touch with Mahathir鈥檚 office as it seeks clarification. It said it believed Mahathir鈥檚 comments 鈥渕ay have been taken out of context in certain media reports鈥 as they do not correspond with the content of a meeting between the prime minister and Country Garden Holdings Chairman Yeung Kwok Keung.
In that August 16 meeting, Mahathir 鈥渞eiterated that he welcomes foreign investments which could create employment opportunities, promote technology transfer and innovations that could benefit Malaysia鈥檚 economic growth and job creation,鈥 Country Garden Pacificview said.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
