Johor to expand Kulai fast lane concept to other districts

KULAI: Johor is looking to emulate and replicate the Kulai Fast Lane concept to other districts, a move that can encourage more investors to the state, Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi said today.

He said the initiative, which was introduced by the Kulai Municipal Council (MPKu) to cut red tape and facilitate investors to set up businesses, has been successful and would be renamed as "Johor Fast Lane".

"This is a commitment of the state government in ensuring that Johor is investor and business friendly. We welcome everyone from around the world to the state," he said in his speech at the opening of Phase One of Bridge Data Centres (BDC) at Sedenak Technology Centre here, today.

As Johor envisions to become a developed state by 2030, he said the state government has been working around the clock to make sure not only that the infrastructure are in place but also ensuring the basic necessities are fulfilled.

"This is to ensure the investors and the people continue to be comfortable in this state. Our roads, utilities like water are all of international standards, so investors feel that this state will continue to support their growth," said Onn Hafiz, who is also the Machap assemblyman.

On a separate note, the Menteri Besar also said that the next few weeks would be important for Malaysians including Johoreans as they cast their votes in the 15th General Election, which is slated on Nov 19.

He said whatever the decision made in the coming weeks would have a direct impact on Johor.

"Johor has registered RM60.9 billion worth of investments, the highest recorded in the country today for 2022. In my opinion, other than the support from the federal government, this is due to the stability (of the state)," he added.

Also present at the event were Malaysian Investment Development Authority chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Wira Arham Abdul Rahman and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation CEO Mahadhir Aziz.

BDC is the first company awarded the Malaysia Digital status to complete the construction and handover the business-ready hyperscale data centre in 2022. The construction of the data centre was completed in record time of about 2.2 million working hours (314 days) since the ground-breaking in November 2021.

Phase 1 of the data centre comprised the first of three buildings in the 110-megawatt hyperscale data centre project sprawled over 15.4 hectares of land.

ByteDance, which is the parent company of TikTok, will be the anchor tenant at BDC's hyperscale data centre with long-term investment commitment in the country.

-- BERNAMA