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no wonder Sabah & Sarawak always been treated like foreign country...so sad

Hardly surprising. Johor has to be compensated for the cancellation of the bridge as no credible justification (except for the elegance/witlessness of the silence) has been provided yet for the flip-flop with the bridge). (No flame please - I am not saying whether the bridge is right or wrong - but one does not reverse a decision in such an unprofessional manner) Otherwise huge political price to pay for UMNO.

Sabah and Sarawak? Most peninsula people don't really know where they are. "So you are from Kuching in Sabah?"

The two states will have to find their own way. Just wish they are have control of their principle natural resource: petroleum.

ECONOMIC MIRACLE OR DEBACLE?
picked this out from the last para of the nst's story. without the help of perspective in the story, this para sounds like a masturbation of the ego (when it is actually a pre-emptive defence against people who will say that the JSC is Khairy's idea for Khairy & Friends). This also qualifies for a Quote of the Century award:-

"Let me stress that this is my idea. It did not come from anyone else. It is my own vision and plan to create this super corridor in south Johor to make it the nation’s premier growth centre." - Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

p.s. How scary can it be? One man can visualise such a gigantic economic scheme when he "tak tahu" about ikan bilis ECM Libra, where Khairy is shareholder, gobbling up ikan paus Avenue?

Is cyberjaya consider succeed with fully developed and need another MSC?

Can't they do thing one by one?

In 1989, people of Semenanjung, would ask me "Bila sampai Malaysia?" As if Sarawak is not part of Malaysia.

Today, this very day, they would still ask the same question, as if the word "Malaysia" exists before 1963.

Don't hold your breath everyone, I have not seen much of Pak Lah's vision materialised. With his leadership for the past 3 years, nothing has yet to come out and nothing much will be coming soon. Look at the OIC and NAM, with him being the president, there is just no urgency for him to do anything.

The idea is pretty obvious, to lure investor from "geologically expensive" Singapore. Just take it as coperate-competitive move with Singpaore.

It is bold move but stringent and investment friendly policy are more important than the hardware.

Then we still need to crooked -straight-scenic bridge lah!

A grand vision which needs both brains and mettle. The most important is to have a fundamental mindset swift from the current "reverse gear NEP mindset" before you can succeed to have a " Hong Kong or Shenzhen" of Malaysia. No need to compare with Hong Kong which took 150 years to reach what it is today....the best period of development took place in the last 20 to 30 years as the British sun was setting. But for Shenzhen, it is to the credit of Deng Xiao-ping which boldly impleted the opening up and reforming policy from 1978 and over the period Shenzhen has developed leaps and bounce to what it is today. Shenzhen in fact by 1993 to 1995 is already the look of Kuala Lumpur today. The number of high rise buildings and the sjyline speaks volume. The number of industrial factories can testify to its advancement. The central theme is massive development overrides all considerations... no such thing as affirmative policy, no such thing as special beneficials to one group against the masses... It is down right effective competition. Can we also do this? If we are able to emulate the scheme of things without racial connotation then, I am certain we will not be far off. I know Malaysians can do it!

Another old and tired salesmanship. Heard of these stories for over a decade.
Datuk Ghani has been there for many years yet he is only a seat warmer. What has he done for Johor? A few beautification projects and his favourite waterfront project located near one of the most poluted water body in Malaysia, the Straits of Johor and also Sungai Skudai. I once talk to one of my Mat Salleh's friend and he said it with a laugh..... to have a successful waterfront project, we have to have good water quality and it is a prerequisite. If you can't swim in the water and have to smell the foul water smell, what is there to talk about world class waterfront city.

We have started with floating city in Johor during the Pilecon era but we ended up with an abandoned lot 1 commercial complex and a floating city that has floated away. What we have are some very unsightly piles sticking up from the straits of Johor.

Datuk Ghani needs to do more for Johor. Don't just do political talking, prove it with actions. Have a more pro-active and conducive business friendly to the foreign investors. If Singapore being such an expensive city as compare to Johor can attract so much FDI, I do not see why Johor is at a disadvantage unless we are not equal in business acuemen

It is laughable to develope this Johor strip to entice investors and be the new Hong Kong/Shenzen!
Why ? Simply because we have never implemented anything well as if you want tourist eventually the local council will do a flip flop on bars and restaurants not being able to operate late and some local gundo will say all this is un islamic because of too many tourist and their attractions !
It will meander to a halt and locals who jumps in to open such attractions will be left to lose money eventually.
We are too mired in hypocrisy to really do a Tourist thing well .
Sigh !......Malaysia Boleh...ke ?

I hope it will not become like the marina in Penang. No yacht or boat in sight, berths too shallow for anything bigger than a sampan. Now need to dredge the bottom.

They might be able to replicate Hong Kong's infrastructure by wasting the taxpayer's money but trust me, it'll end up being a ghost town.

The stupidity of the ppl in charge with our economy. Stupid and selfish.

Jeff,
If the intention of the Johore corridor is to compete with S'pore in spite of their land constraint, then we should have a Cabinet that are made up men and women of better calibre, better quality, better education, better integrity, better vision, better industry, better intelligence,better merit. Otherwise,billions and billions of taxpayers money, epf savings of our workers,income from our oil revenue ete etc are going to go down the Staits of Malacca, and to the greedy buayas, maneaters all of them, as happened in the past.
Does anybody see men such as I reffered to above see among the BN leaders or anyone in the horizon, our future leadership? If you know please tell everybody so that the good people of Malaysia can be better prepared for next General Elections!
KSN

Alamak! Why does Malaysia always have to follow some other countries' model of development? First it was the Silicon Valley which gave TDM the idea to develop MSC and now with China rising, PM Abdullah wants to follow HK/Shenzhen.

First of all, did MSC achieve its goal to be a regional IT powerhouse? No, certainly not. Clean up the backyard first and set an example of a true development success before proceeding with any grand projects. HK did not follow any model of development to achieve its status today but a product of political stability and liberal pragmatic economic policies for its people to flourish in the world of business.
Shenzhen, though still developing but was build upon a base of solid economic pragmatism diligently adhered to by officials.

Stop all this nonsense when we have people from an Oxford PPE graduate to some UPM students are reigning free doing all sorts of nonsense.

benkaiser, there is nothing wrong with using another country's success as a model for our development. singapore did the same using hong kong as a model. what matters is the success of the implementation.

part map: http://tinyurl.com/qso7o

His spinmeisters would probably be whincing that he has specifically slotted one state out of so many to be the premier growth engine for the whole country. Calling it his own idea only makes it worse, especially since everyone knows that sooner or later, Johor will have to catch up in tourism and retail activities what it has been doing for agriculture and logistics. Saying the obvious doesn't make for inspiration.

Hopefully in the coming weeks, they can make amends by adding that the projects will be needing lots of raw materials from other states. For example, refinery fuel from Melaka and Trengganu, marble and limestone from Perak, and sawn timber from Sabah, Sarawak and Pahang, with our MP of Jasin as backup.

There remains some nettlesome concerns:

- was it by open tender that these north, east and south corridors have been so speedily spun out to the named companies?; perhaps the tenders were so open they fell outside the pages of our felicitous press? The akyat are still smarting from the true costs of privatisation so some justification should be in order for these appointments, for instance their terms of reference (maincon, developer, project manager, financier?);

- in 'starting' this super-project, do they have ready a database pregnant with all the past mistakes made by we-know-who-and-who so that from the past, lessons can be gleamed to rightsize visions of the future in order to combat excesses, leakages and political shenanigans of tomorrow?

- will he stand up and firmly announce that this family of projects will be implemented, and maintained, par excellence, by the method of 'doing the right things right the first time at minimal cost', thereby setting a fiercer and more committed tone for more integrated control at the interfaces of federal and state administrations? Or, will the rakyat have to girdle up again to bemoan another couple of years of snafus, costing billions, some 'disappearing' into thin air? In other words, will he insert an Integrity mechanism into all the projects, and give their details and financials permanent residence on the worldwide web (which will also make it easier for the auditor-general to later do his usuals);

- was there any assessment made on federal efficiencies gained, if any, from moving the federal govt offices from KL to Putrajaya at immense cost in order to gather some pre-project wisdom before this intended move of the Johor state govt office to Nusajaya, 25 minutes from central JB, at this proposed cost of RM400 million, given the RM1 billion already expended on the CIQ in JB, soon an elevated, hightech used-car warehouse (one hopes not)? Can the rakyat expect really 'open' tender, not prepaid gerrymandering?

- has the well-equipped home ministry a contingency plan for this project? By contingency plan is meant: big construction = many workers = more foreigners = from across the straits, nearby = mykad photocopies ok = identity/citizenship phishing; If the rakyat can be horrified to discover that was-it-Sabah suddenly had more citizens than official by a few hundred thousand (or millions?), shouldn't they take heart that the security situation will be sharpened in the next few years in Johor? Like, entire condos don't get ransacked in broad daylight in JB? So that we don't wake up to find Lex Luthor having a mykad by proxy?

Cyberport HK is a highclass beachfront condo area carved out of the hills, and Shenzhen's success as an industrial zone is mimicked in a hundred other places in China simply because their state and federal governments have strident and close-loop focus on doing the right things quickly and efficiently, inclusive of getting the soft aspects of investment attractiveness to coincide with the human resource equation. Are the movers and shakers of Johor ready to be at the forefront of Malaysia's embrace of this 21st century, or will you too get the tingling sensation as you drive around the klang valley from Klang to Putrajaya that progress in this country is actually just about construction activities moving from one place to another which may yet again be repeated elsewhere until all coffin money (EPF) is exhausted?

Lastly, progress is not just hardware or buildings; it's also about 'bridges' - bridge to integrity, bidge to efficiency, and in our country, bridge to right policies that will groom increasingly progressive societal and probusiness relations; that includes not shooting the messengers just because the policy-makers are not able to handle the messages with greater dictum and fairness. For that to happen and for people to be enthused about starting business, investing in the future, developing the local economies, they shouldn't be made to feel that governments and their media are being held to some invisible ransom to be partial to what they have themselves deemed to be the vague interests of an inflammable grouping.

If they can't treat all this right and fair to all citizens of this country, saying Johor will be the next metropolitan won't hold up. And you know it.

No chance, this baby does not have a chance at all. They will build and build with Khazanah money, and all the projects will be white elephants, rotting in the sun. They can't take care of crime in JB, and they think they can attract people to the Southern Corridor ?

Wishful thinking...it will attract thousands of illegal Indonesians from Riau.

Jeff and others,
In my earlier posting,I had referred to our Cabinet which should be BETTER equipped with so many qualities to compete with S'pore. Better was referred in comparison with the S'pore Cabinet.Remember the comparisons posted in this blog some time ago. Readers can come to their own conclusions which Q.E.D.
ksn

As a JBian, I'm quite upbeat about this plan. What bothers me is the statement made by Abdullah:

“We may not necessarily use the same methods of development (as in Hong Kong or Shenzhen) as we will mould it our way,”

You can call me cynical, but the "mould it our way" phrase doesn't really incite much confidence in me. What do you guys think? Jeff?