RM112 Billion for ECER

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 (Bernama) -- About 40 percent of the RM112 billion to be invested in the East Coast Economic Region (ECER) covering Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Mersing district in Johor will be spent on major transportation linkages and other key infrastructure facilities.Petronas president and chief executive officer Tan Sri Mohd Hassan Marican said the provision of greater access and enhanced transportation networks will be a crucial determinant for development and growth in the region.Petronas is the master planner for the economic region, which comprises 66,736 sq km or 51 percent of Peninsular Malaysia. The ECER will be launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in Kuala Terengganu and Kota Bahru on Oct 30 and in Kuantan on Oct 31.The ECER is the third development region to be launched by Abdullah this year after the Iskandar Development Region in Johor and the Northern Corridor Economic Region covering states in northern Peninsular Malaysia.Factoring in the population of 3.9 million in the ECER against the total spending, an estimated RM30,000 is to be spent on each person in the region during its implementation between now and 2020, he told an editors' briefing on the ECER here yesterday.The population in the ECER is 14.5 percent of the national population of 26.8 million and the region is also the Malay heartland as Bumiputeras form the bulk of the population at 86.6 percent. This is followed by the Chinese at 7.8 percent, Indians at 1.8 percent and others at 3.8 per cent.The enhanced road infrastructure will include Phase Three of the East Coast Expressway linking Kuala Terengganu and Kota Baharu, Phase Four of the expressway connecting Kuantan to Johor Baharu and a road linking Temerloh to Kuala Pilah.Hassan said of the RM112 billion, 20 percent will be financed by the private sector, 27 percent via private finance initiative (PFI) and the rest by the government.Hassan explained that the main objective of the ECER Development Plan is to accelerate growth in the region in a viable, equitable and sustainable manner.Among others, it will address the economic imbalance in the region as the ECER states have among the lowest average household incomes in Malaysia.Terengganu and Kelantan are states with highest incidence of poverty in Malaysia after Sabah, where in 2004 the incidence of poverty stood at 15.4 percent and 10.6 percent, followed by Pahang at 4.0 percent.Under the ECER masterplan, 561,000 jobs will be created by 2020 and hard core poverty will be cut to zero.The gross domestic product (GDP) pace of growth for ECER will be raised to 7.2 percent by 2020 from 5.7 percent in 2005.Both Terengganu and Pahang are targeted to grow at 7.5 percent with Kelantan at 6.4 percent.The mission of the ECER is to move the economy up the value chain, raise capacity for knowledge and innovation, address persistent socio-economic inequalities, improve the standard and quality of life and strengthen the institutional and implementation capacity.Apart from tackling accessibility to the region, the regional imbalance (West Coast states versus East Coast states) and the incidence of hardcore poverty, the ECER will also address income inequalities between the rural and urban populations and basic infrastructure, as well as optimise the property sector, including tapping the potential of Malay Reserve Land, said Hassan."Among the ideas for optimsing Malay Reserve Land is to set up a trust that will develop the land. Owners of the land can be members of the trust fund," he explained.Excluding government-owned land, a whopping 40 percent of the land in the ECER is Malay Reserve Land.Hassan said the development masterplan will capitalise on the more than 190 training institutes and institutions of higher learning in the ECER, which are mostly underutilised, with the aim of not only using them to train locals to move up the value chain but also to attract those outside the region to study there.Besides education, he said, the other sectors that have been identified to revitalise the region are tourism, oil and gas, petrochemicals, manufacturing, agriculture and education."The thrust of the ECER will be agriculture and tourism," he added.On agriculture, Hassan said it will include citrus and pineapple cultivation, goat-rearing, herbal cultivation and growing rubber trees specifically for timber to be used in furniture-making."We have identified 50,000 to 100,000 acres for growing rubber trees for timber," he added.This also means furniture-making activities, now concentrated in the southern part of the peninsula, can be expanded to the ECER, he added.As for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), Hassan said the objective is to attract all kinds of FDI, both big and small, in areas like tourism, manufacturing and education.As for Petronas, he said, "we will be investing in oil and gas like we have been doing all this while."Hassan said Petronas took seven to eight months to complete the masterplan, which will be officially handed over to the government at the ECER's launch.Petronas, he said, could be one of the private sector representatives in the council that will run the ECER.He said the council, whose members will include the prime minister and deputy prime minister, the menteris besar of the four states, two cabinet ministers and representatives of the private sector, will be responsible for the implementation of the ECER masterplan.According to him, it is too early to say whether an authority will be established to manage the ECER, as has been done for the IDR and NCER.Hassan said during the formulation of the ECER development plan, Petronas had spoken to all four state governments, including the Opposition-led Kelantan government."The plan can succeed. It will have one council, its Bill is being drafted to be tabled in Parliament in December," said Hassan."If there is focus and strong commitment, there is no reason why the ECER cannot succeed."