KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 ― Perak may appear stuck in the same doldrums from the days of its mining industry collapse but the state’s investment agency insists that, behind the veneer of ineffectual marketing, is an undercurrent of development set to help the Silver State catch up to its neighbours.
“Perak has this unfortunate thing, as far as [publicity] is concerned, we are too big for people to see and not small enough … for people to really get a feel.
“There [is] growth, things are happening but you see, we are not good (at) PR, we don’t tell people,” he said referring to the state’s lack of marketing, in an interview recently.
“It is not stagnant but one thing for certain is that it can grow faster than now, we just have got to get our act better as we go along because we got everything.”
The state’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5.2 per cent to RM38.92 billion in 2012 from the year before, according to the estimated figures from the Economic Planning Unit (EPU).
“If you look through the history of how country grows in all over the world, you talk about industrial revolution, that has always been iron based.
“Hopefully when Vale is here, Vale has got high quality iron ore to bring to the shore of Malaysia that means we have high quality iron at our door step, in our country, but those will be distributed to China, India, all over the world.
“I believe it will change the profile of the state as far as manufacturing is concerned, what we should have now is a high quality iron making facility,” he said.
One of the stumbling blocks to kicking the economic growth into a higher gear, however, was the lack of developed industrial zones.
“At the moment you’re talking about the manufacturing sector, we have a lot of enquiries, we have a lot of development… people want to expand, but we don’t have very much developed industrial estate.
Muhammad Hafni explained that the State Economic Development Corporation had taken on the role to develop these industrial estates since the early 1970s but privatised the effort in 1992 after it realised that it was too expensive to continue.
There is also the RM450 million ongoing China Southern Rail project, expected to be completed by June next year, which is expected to be ASEAN’s rail manufacturing hub with China’s largest metro vehicle manufacturer setting up of the first rail centre outside China, in Batu Gajah.
The complex, named CSR Rolling Stock Centre (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, will be operated by a CSR Group subsidiary, CSR ZhuZhou Electric Locomotive Co Ltd (CSR ZELC), and is expected to provide 800 jobs.
He added that a federal project, the Malaysian Defence and Security Technology Park in Sungkai is expected to begin end of the year.
“So it is wrong to say that we are stagnant but what is important here to say is that we can go on higher gear, we can move faster,” he said.
Perak’s median household income had also improved from RM2,094 in 2009 to RM2,665 in 2012, an 8 per cent average annual growth rate, according to data from the Department of Statistics’ website.
But the state also experiences a negative migration rate; it lost 3,300 individuals between 2010 and 2011, which exacerbated to a net outflow of 7,900 from 2011 to 2012.
One bright spot is Ipoh that, despite the perception that the population was stagnant, grew from 529,906 in 2000 to 657,892 in 2010, according to data from the Department of Statistics.
But in comparison, Penang island, which is half the size of Ipoh, had a population of 708,127 in 2010 or about 50,000 more residents than the Perak capital.
This might have also contributed to the stagnated growth in the housing market of Perak’s capital city.
Sunway Berhad Joint Managing Director Ong Pang Yen said it is important for Ipoh to reach a critical mass, in order to create a sustainable market, where people would find the sleepy tin mining town livable.
He said plans to build an outlet mall next year, with more than 700 units of serviced apartments, expected to commence by 2016, will contribute to creating a more wholesome township.
The vibrancy of Ipoh’s residential property market, however, depends heavily on existing home-owners keen on upgrading their lifestyles or those interested in the holiday home concept, Ong said.
“When we were talking to groups of investors, especially those retirees from countries like Japan and Korea, we always talk about coming and having properties in cities like KL and Bandar Sunway, we call it metropolitan living but pure metropolitan living [is] also sometimes very tense.
“How nice is it if I can come and retire in Malaysia and I have the best of both worlds, both metropolitan living and country living, so at one point in time, even now we are exploring, maybe if you buy a home in Sunway South Quay for example in KL, in the hustle and bustle of metropolitan living, we can package it with, like two to three weeks stay in Ipoh every quarter, enjoying the hot spring, relaxing, that would be living,” he told The Malay Mail Online during a recent interview.
There is a challenge, however, since the population in Ipoh is not growing as fast as it should, Ong admitted.
Ipoh’s populace grew from 529,906 in 2000 to 657,892 in 2010, according to data from the Department of Statistics.
In comparison, Penang island, which is half the size of Ipoh, had a population of 708,127 in 2010 or about 50,000 more residents than the Perak capital.
“There is also a problem because everybody has a house, upgrade already what to do with the house? If cannot sell then how? Then you cannot buy, because if you buy then you will have one house vacant.
“That is the problem that Ipoh market is facing because the population is not growing if the population is growing, no issue, if the population is stagnating then it is very difficult, that’s why the occupancy keeps dropping,” he said, adding that the occupancy rate per household in Ipoh has dropped to about 3.5, which was one of the lowest in the country.
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