Six banks recently signed a letter of intent (LOI) with the Malaysian Economy Ministry with plans to advance financial facilitation to support the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ).
According to Economy Minister Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli, the LOI – signed by Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank), CIMB Bank Bhd, Bank of America, HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and CGS International Securities – is the first decisive step in realising the economic vision of the JS-SEZ.
“(The LOI) is centred on the four key pillars, the first being financing support in strategic areas. The second and third focus on promotion and stakeholder engagement, and the fourth pillar looks at research and market intelligence,” he said, highlighting that the partnership represents something bigger than just two ASEAN countries coming together.
“With banks being the conduits of capital, their presence is critical to galvanising private sector participation through the pooling of capital and commerce. Having the buy-in from these anchors of the financial system is perhaps the best show of progress and belief in JS-SEZ to date,” he added.
The minister also noted that the international, regional and local banks would plan and develop their own programmes on how much their allocation or commitments to facilitate the financing program in supporting the JS-SEZ and future investors.
“When we pre-select the banks, we judge them on their strategy and clientele to fit with JS-SEZ. The idea is to make sure that we have large international banks to cater to each region.
“At the moment, we leave it to the banks to decide their capital allocation or to develop their own programmes for JS-SEZ, but these banks know they have direct access to government policy and assistance that provides them the advantage when they try to convert their clients to come to JS-SEZ,” he added.
Rafizi also mentioned that the JS-SEZ Blueprint will be launched at year-end and will feature a comprehensive roadmap that outlines the long-term vision, strategic aspirations and investment opportunities within the economic zone.
Meanwhile, Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi pointed out that five major investment projects were facilitated in the JS-SEZ through Invest Malaysia Facilitation Centre Johor (IMFC-J), representing RM16.5 billion in committed investments.
He said that the IMFC-J is currently in active engagement with 47 other investors, having potential investments totalling RM40.1 billion across key sectors like manufacturing , data centres and energy from markets such as Singapore, China and South Korea.
“In just over two months since its launch, IMFC-J received more than 300 investor enquiries, with 100 of them focused on the Forest City Special Financial Zone alone. As a facilitator, the job of the IMFC-J is also to convert real interest into actual investments and that is exactly what it has been delivering on,” Onn Hafiz said.
Earlier in February, IMFC-J was launched in collaboration with federal partners, jointly operated and led by Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA), Invest Johor and Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) to remove bottlenecks and fast-track investor journeys within the JS-SEZ.
At the same time, Onn Hafiz highlighted that Johor has secured a record-breaking RM27.4 billion in total approved investments in the first quarter of 2025 as it took the state nine months to reach the same milestone in the previous year.
“We currently have an additional RM23 billion in the investment pipeline, expected to materialize by the end of this quarter. If these numbers hold, Johor will exceed RM50 to RM60 billion in total investments in 2025, surpassing last year’s RM48.5 billion.
“This will position Johor in the top three investment destinations in Malaysia yet again,” he noted.
