JOHOR BARU, Sept 19 — Johor’s Forest City master developer, Country Garden Pacific View Sdn Bhd (CGPV), received two special mention category awards that were presented by the state’s crown prince during an award presentation ceremony here last night.
The “StarProperty.my Awards 2018: Jewels of Johor” event was held at Thistle Hotel.
The guest-of-honour was Johor’s Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar. He was accompanied by the Tunku Mahkota Johor, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim.
The two special mention awards were the Most Iconic International City Planner and Sustainable Smart City Developer, and the Biggest and Most Advanced Industrialised Building System (IBS) Development in Malaysia by an International Developer.
Both the awards were presented by Tunku Ismail to CGPV during the event.
Also present were Johor Housing and Rural Development Committee chairman Dzulkefly Ahmad, Star Media Group Berhad chairman Datuk Fu Ah Kiow and Star Media Group managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai.
Pictures of the event were posted to the official Facebook pages of Sultan Ibrahim and Tunku Ismail.
This is the second consecutive year the southern region’s property awards ceremony was held.
It is also the first time that Forest City, recently embroiled in controversy over foreigners buying its property, won the two awards.
A total of 13 other awards were also presented to various developers, with five new categories introduced this year: Best Integrated Development, Best Safety Features Development, Best Affordable Development, Best Corporate Social Responsibility and Best Choice Award.
Forest City is still in its early stages of development; reclamation works are ongoing.
The US$100 billion (RM415.3 billion) development project will be built on four man-made islands in the Straits of Johor and covers a total area of 14-sq km; the project would bring Malaysia’s shoreline closer to Singapore.
More than 700,000 foreigners, the project’s intended buyers, are expected by 2050.
Forest City, the most ambitious project in Johor’s Iskandar’s economic zone, made international headlines on August 27 after Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said foreigners will be restricted from buying homes or granted visas to live in the mega-project, which had been marketed primarily to buyers from China.
However, the Prime Minister’s Office clarified in a statement the next day that the purchase of properties did not guarantee automatic residency in Malaysia, which was echoed by the Johor government a few days later.
It said any such purchases would not automatically grant the buyers residency, but foreigners can apply through the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) government programme.
Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Osman Sapian clarified earlier this month that the billion-dollar Forest City project is a positive development to the state and national economy.
