JOHOR BARU, Feb 26 — The Johor government is in the process of identifying areas, districts or heritage sites in the state that can be proposed as a creative economy hub to be listed under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

Johor Information, Entrepreneurship Development, Cooperative and Creative Committee chairman Sheikh Umar Bagharib Ali said the initiative was aimed to strengthen the state economy.

"We are still in the midst of planning and identifying potential areas in Johor. However, we also welcome any sort of cooperation with Unesco on this,” he told the media at the Johor Information Department here today.

Sheikh Umar explained that a creative economy hub for the state can be in the form of a locality, district, town, infrastructure or also heritage building.

He said the hub need not be just restricted to one for the state as Johor has vast potential and among the areas considered include the Johor Baru city centre, Ayer Hitam and Parit Sulong, where each has a heritage building that can be used as a creative hub for industrial players.

"The state government is still in the very early stages of planning as we will need a to create a creative economy blueprint before establishing the creative economy hub for Johor,” said Sheikh Umar.

He was commenting on the state’s planned creative economy hub following his visit to the Asean Unesco office in Jakarta, Indonesia yesterday.

Sheikh Umar, who is also the Paloh assemblyman, said he hopes the blueprint will be prepared before the annual national budget session by September or October of this year.

"The discussions with Unesco also provided much exposure where the agency will also give their feedback in assisting us to develop the blueprint,” he said.