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Johor’s Forest City seeks to diversify ownership amid Chinese dominance: Report

KUALA LUMPUR — The developer of Forest City, an upcoming posh residential and commercial enclave in Johor Baru, is actively courting more buyers from other parts of Asia following complaints that virtually all of its buyers are wealthy Chinese nationals.

A model of the Forest City development is displayed at the Country Garden Holdings Co. property showroom in Iskandar Malaysia zone of Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia, on Tuesday, Nov. 02, 2016. Bloomberg file photo

A model of the Forest City development is displayed at the Country Garden Holdings Co. property showroom in Iskandar Malaysia zone of Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia, on Tuesday, Nov. 02, 2016. Bloomberg file photo

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KUALA LUMPUR — The developer of Forest City, an upcoming posh residential and commercial enclave in Johor Baru, is actively courting more buyers from other parts of Asia following complaints that virtually all of its buyers are wealthy Chinese nationals.

Developer Country Garden’s chief strategist Runze Yu said the people behind the project are seeking to woo other home buyers from South-east Asia, India and the Middle East to balance out the Chinese ownership, which is currently at 70 per cent, The Financial Times reported on Friday (Feb 10).

“There is a conventional image about the Chinese and China companies: Money-driven, hardworking and cheap — not good quality,” Mr Runze was quoted saying.

But he was also reported to have highlighted that local participation in the project is high with employees standing at 70 per cent, in a bid to provide quality housing to the 700,000 people who are expected to live there once the project is complete in 20 years.

“In Forest City we are doing our best to provide quality . . . where we care about the local community and environment,” Mr Runze was quoted saying.

Forest City has come under fire from former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad who predicted that the project will be a “foreign enclave” that will bring a Chinese flood into Johor.

Now an Opposition politician with Umno splinter Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, Dr Mahathir also claimed that Chinese nationals would eventually be given permanent residence status and be allowed to vote.

The allegation infuriated government leaders and also state Ruler Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar who is a business partner in the project and who rebuked Dr Mahathir for “playing the politics of fear and race”.

But The Financial Times reported that Dr Mahathir’s critical remarks on the project could likely be part of a wider fear against China’s increasingly close ties with Malaysia and influence in the South-east Asian region.

Prime Minister Najib Razak returned from a trip to China last November with US$34 billion (S$48.3 billion) worth of trade and investment agreements signed, including a RM55 billion (S$17.6 billion) rail line to connect the east and west coasts and the expansion of a strategic port in Malacca on the strait through which much of China’s crude oil passes.

The business paper also wrote that Chinese groups are likely to bid for the Malaysia-Singapore high-speed rail link signed last year and scheduled to start in 2026, adding that Beijing has ambitious plans to extend a high-speed rail connection from the southern city of Kunming all the way down through Thailand to the Malay peninsula to connect with Singapore.

The paper also quoted a local political scientist saying that China’s interest in Malaysia reflects in part its desire to exploit the prospect of a declining US influence in South-east Asia.

“With TPP dead, the Chinese think this is a wonderful opportunity to push their vision of the future,” Mr James Chin, director of the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania, was quoted saying.

“The Chinese believe that in 100 years they will be the economic superpower, South-east Asia will be dependent on them, and the de facto situation will be that the South China Sea belongs to China,” he added. MALAY MAIL ONLINE

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