Q: Is there a chance that there will be an overreliance on Singapore organizations investing in this Hz given Johor’s close contact and its interdependence with Singapore? What is the strategy to kind of entice regional businesses, particularly those with international Businesses?
In all the debate surrounding JS-SEZ, I’ve always made the point that it would be like a huge reduction if JS-SEZ only looked at Singapore and Malaysia. But also, when it comes to investments, our see is that JS-SEZ is going to be quite attractive to international investors.  ,
I only have a few choices if I were a global investment looking to grow and established myself in ASEAN. I can go to Vietnam, I can go to Indonesia, I can go to Malaysia, or suggest Singapore. But then again, if I were to go to Singapore, Singapore has its in place, but it also has its limits, and vice versa for Johor. And so, the interaction that we can give is designed to attract international opportunities, and that by itself, I think, will be able to handle this problem of over-reliance on Singapore businesses.  ,
If we can accomplish the vital mass, which is driven by international investments into JS-SEZ, then both Malaysian and Singapore businesses may benefit from the spill, which is undoubtedly beneficial.  ,
Q: The perspective for this Says is to rival some of the effective areas in countries like China, United States, Germany, but we know that those are extremely different from what we have below, where it requires two different places, different areas. What would it take to finally be comparable to some of these prosperous regions?
I continue to believe that ASEAN will expand, and that if we become more included, common sense will succeed in this region. We are much stronger as an economy of 700 million plus people.  ,
This optimistic JS-SEZ, exclusive economic zone between two nations, which is unique in this world, is a manifestation of the first few steps toward more connectivity between two ASEAN economy, and I hope it will help us have a better opportunity of utilizing the ASEAN probable of this huge market.  ,
So so, while it is very unique, and therefore it has a set of difficulties, it furthermore addresses that need to press for more inclusion between economies in ASEAN. Let’s begin with Johor and Singapore, and I hope that if it succeeds, it will encourage further inclusion in ASEAN beyond Malaysia and Singapore because we really need to share our sources and see how we can collaborate to benefit our respective talents in the future.
Q: Now that this agreement has been signed, what are the following steps to take right away to take this Says to life?
There’ll be a series of job streams that have to happen in reverse. At the planning level between Malaysia and Singapore, there will be a high level committee that starts working on the blueprint, because it’s a chicken and egg ( situation ). We didn’t do a template until we copper out the guidelines. So now that, with the arrangement, all rules and pledges and shared perspective are sealed, then we can proceed to the next stage, which is to create the template. And with the blueprint, it will make it much simpler for Malaysian and Singapore agencies to promote jointly, while also providing all the administrative infrastructure, which, in my opinion, is already in place to facilitate the first wave of investments.
Malaysia already has the Iskandar Malaysia Facilitation Centre, which facilitates administrative processes by bringing all government agencies under one roof to make sure investments are processed much more quickly. And in terms of the governing infrastructure, it’s already been built into the agreement. Then we just need to get going with this. So I believe that we will learn more about the vision for each node in the year 2025.