Singapore investors welcomed in Johor

The city-state can look to its closest state to solve its space constraint, a Johor official said.

Malaysia’s southernmost state is embracing Singaporean investors, killing the notion that the new Malaysian government is ‘anti-Singapore’, Malaysian Investment and Utilities Committee chairman Jimmy Puah Wee Tse said.

In a Malaysian Insight report, Puah revealed that investors from their neighbouring city-state welcomed his suggestion to take advantage of their proximity to Johor by moving operations to the state whilst keeping regional offices across the Causeway. He convinced them that returns on investments will fare better in Malaysia for industries that need more space.

"Singapore is a great place, but they are constrained by space,” he said in an interview with Malaysian Insight. “They want to build, but they can only build upwards or downwards. They cannot build horizontally,"

According to data from the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, the Lion City placed as the second biggest investor in the country’s manufacturing sector with $766m worth of investments back in 2017. For Johor, Singapore was its fourth-biggest investment backer in manufacturing.

Despite some bilateral issues, foreign direct investment from Singapore to Malaysia stood at $2.03b, making the neighbouring state Malaysia’s third biggest investor.