KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 — The Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ) blueprint has been completed and approved by the Cabinet but will only be officially launched jointly by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

Economy Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said the blueprint had already been finalised as an operational document, with implementation already underway despite the formal launch still pending.

“The blueprint has been completed from the documentation perspective and everything that needed to be decided has already received Cabinet approval,” he told reporters after the JS-SEZ Executive Forum today.

He said the Cabinet had decided the blueprint should be unveiled by the leaders of both countries given its significance to bilateral cooperation.

“Although the document is operational in nature, there is room for it to be showcased at a higher level involving the two leaders.

“That is why Cabinet decided that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, together with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, should launch the document,” he said.

Akmal said agencies had nevertheless begun implementing measures outlined in the blueprint, with committees already focused on attracting and, more importantly, realising investments.

He said the government’s priority this year was execution.

“We want to focus on execution and delivery this year,” he said, adding that 57 per cent of the RM76.98 billion in approved investments recorded under the JS-SEZ last year had already materialised on the ground.

The minister also expressed confidence that the zone’s target of creating 20,000 skilled jobs within five years would be achieved much sooner.

“So far I think we are going to supersede (the target),” he said.

“I think in terms of the 20,000 target, it can be easily achieved in three years’ time.”

However, he stressed that the focus remained on ensuring investments translated into quality jobs and high-value projects rather than simply meeting numerical targets.

Akmal said the next phase of the JS-SEZ would focus on creating downstream industries linked to data centres and strengthening Malaysia’s semiconductor ecosystem as the country moves up the manufacturing value chain.

The blueprint had previously been expected to be launched in the first quarter of this year, before today’s revelation that it had already secured Cabinet approval and was awaiting a joint launch by the Malaysian and Singaporean prime ministers.