JOHOR BARUL The rapid economic growth in Johor which has drawn investors and created more jobs opportunities in the state for the past five years is one of the success stories under the National Transformation Programme (NTP) initiatives.
Johor Tourism and Domestic Trade and Consumerism Executive Committee chairman Datuk Tee Siew Kiong said the Johor success story is a great contributor to the NTP overall performance as announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on Friday.
Tee said the Johor government has always aim to be the most developed state in Malaysia and for the past five years, under Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, there have been distinct changes to the Johor economic standings.
"We have surpassed all targets including rising to the top as the main economic powerhouse for the country and we aim to achieve more in the future," said Tee when commenting on the NTP report card laid out by Najib last night.
During the special NTP forum, Najib discussed the achievements that the country has gained from the NTP initiatives which were introduced in 2010 to improve the livelihood of Malaysians especially in terms of household income and employment stability.
Najib cited several key national investments which had amplified the country economic growth such like the US$7 billion investment in the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in the Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC) by Saudi Arabian state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco in 2017.
Tee said as a progressive state, Johor also played a vital role in the national performance.
"We work as a team and support one another which is what the practice of Muafakat Johor is all about," he said.
Tee also said one of the tremendous achievements for the state is coming up top consecutively in the last five years with high-investment value derived from the manufacturing industry which has contributed a sum of RM115 billion within the period.
Tee said it would not be possible for the state to achieve that success if the state government did not devise its own transformation plan which includes all sectors and different types of new emerging industries.
"I always remind the Johor people and the industry players to have a transformation plan which not only set their goals but includes working plan and counter plan should they stumbled on rocky times. This ensures survival for any industry to stand the uncertain economic changes. They also need to be innovative in their field and plan out how they can attract more investors to come here and invest in the state," he said.