Malaysia is in talks with tycoons to open a casino in Forest City, a US$100 billion (RM480 billion) project in Johor that threatens to become a white elephant, according to Bloomberg.
The business portal quoted sources saying Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim met Berjaya Corp founder Vincent Tan and Genting Group’s Lim Kok Thay in a lunch meeting last week to discuss the matter.
Representatives of Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, as well as other senior government officials, were also present at the meeting, said the report. Sultan Ibrahim is one of the project’s shareholders.
The report noted that talks on the casino project are still in the preliminary stages.
Forest City in Iskandar Puteri, Johor was initially planned to be an integrated residential development. Construction commenced in 2006, involving a consortium of mainland China real estate developers, and the project was touted as an adjunct to the Belt and Road Initiative.
Its developer, Country Garden Pacificview Sdn Bhd, is a joint venture between Country Garden Group and Esplanade Danga 88 Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian government-backed company. Country Garden, a company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s main board, is listed among the Fortune Global 500 and is one of China’s top three developers.
The grand vision of the project was to create a luxury township enclave for well-to-do citizens from China. It was envisioned that the township would attract Chinese wealth and investment and build a new modern city, set on four man-made islands on the Johor Straits adjacent to Singapore.
The first island was planned as the high-tech industrial zone, followed by the second one as the central business district and tourism zone. The third island was supposed to be the financial and economic districts, while the fourth island was intended to be a conference and forum zone. The entire development was slated to be completed by 2035.
However, the project took a hit in 2018 when then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad declared that foreigners would not be granted visas to live in Forest City. Further, currency controls introduced by President Xi Jinping in 2019 drastically restricted potential customers and the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic dealt a body blow to the project.
Today, the Forest City project, dubbed the “city in the sea”, is a ghost town and a lost opportunity for the Johor and national economy.
The casino project, should it materialise, would be the country’s second-ever casino license granted by the government, and provide a much-needed boost for the “ghost town”, the report noted.
The report added that Country Garden is also keen to have a casino at the development. - Mkini
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