Published June 28, 2011

Temasek, Khazanah to develop 2 sites in Iskandar
50-50 venture to carry out projects valued at an estimated RM3b

By LEE U-WEN

(SINGAPORE) Just over a year after they first joined hands to explore business opportunities in Johor's Iskandar Malaysia, Temasek Holdings and Khazanah Nasional yesterday announced that they have identified two sites where they will carry out major joint development projects.

The first is the Urban Wellness development in Medini North and the other is called the Resort Wellness development in Medini Central.

Temasek and Khazanah revealed in a joint statement that the total gross development value of the two Iskandar sites, with a permitted gross floor area of up to 1.36 million square metres, is estimated at RM3 billion (S$1.2 billion).

The plan is to develop serviced apartments, a corporate training centre and commercial, retail, residential and wellness-related facilities on these sites.

The iconic development will be carried out by a 50-50 joint venture between Temasek and Khazanah.

The two sovereign wealth funds are currently in negotiations with potential partners and operators for the various components to maximise the commercial potential of the sites.

According to the statement, planning and design works for the Iskandar projects started earlier this year, with the next steps towards design and further implementation set to take place over the next five years.

Medini North is already home to many large-scale projects, including Southeast Asia's first-ever Legoland theme park and the Lifestyle Retail Mall, the largest retail centre in South Malaysia.

The site in Medini North is purely for commercial facilities and covers about 65,000 square metres. The development in Medini Central, however, is much larger at 1.3 million square metres and is zoned for both commercial and residential purposes.

'The development in Iskandar with Temasek will be highly complementary and builds on the momentum of existing and planned projects in Iskandar Malaysia, in which Khazanah has been involved since 2006,' said Khazanah's managing director Azman Hj Mokhtar.

According to a joint statement issued by the Singapore and Malaysia governments, Temasek and Khazanah will also jointly consider other potential commercially viable developments in Iskandar.

The Iskandar deal is part of a wide-ranging agreement that will see both countries take their bilateral ties further.

This after the leaders of the two governments hailed what they described as an 'historical breakthrough' to officially seal the Points of Agreement (POA) on Malayan Railway (KTM) land in Singapore, a long-standing issue that has dogged bilateral relations for the last two decades.

In the joint statement, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak announced that a written instrument had been put together and approved by both governments yesterday in Kuala Lumpur.

The document - signed by Malaysia's Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohamed Yakcop and Singapore's Law and Foreign Minister K Shanmugam - summed up several key proposals that their governments had earlier agreed to work together on.

Come 2018, Singapore and Malaysia will operate a new cross-border mass rail line that will run from a station near Republic Polytechnic in Woodlands to another station in the vicinity of JB Sentral in Johor Bahru.

This rapid transit link will have a shared customs, immigration and quarantine facility in Singapore and one in Johor to allow train commuters to clear immigration just once for each way of travel.

A technical workgroup has been formed to call a tender later this year for a consultancy study that will develop possible alignments and proposals for the railway link.

The statement also noted that Singapore is on track to take control of the historic Tanjong Pagar Railway Station and relocate it to the Woodlands Train Checkpoint (WTCP) this Friday.

The Republic will also take charge of several parcels of railway land previously owned by Malaysia for decades. In return, Malaysia will receive six land parcels in the Marina South and Ophir-Rochor areas in Singapore.

As part of the deal, Singapore will ensure proper bus and taxi services at the Woodlands Train Checkpoint to a nearby MRT station for the convenience of train commuters, said the joint statement.

Already, the Land Transport Authority has increased the number of taxi bays at WCTP from two to five, and lengthened the bus bay and shelter there.

Also on schedule is the implementation of the work plan to hand over the waterworks under the 1961 Water Agreement by Singapore free of charge and as a matter of goodwill after the deal expires on Aug 31 this year.