East Coast economic council realises RM10.9bil investments in Kelantan

KOTA BARU: The East Coast Economic Region Development Council (ECERDC) has recorded a realised investment of RM10.9bil in Kelantan over 15 years.

The realised investment is through consistent efforts of the ECERDC in collaboration with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) and the Kelantan state government.

ECERDC chief executive officer Datuk Baidzawi Che Mat said the realised investment has created nearly 10,000 job opportunities and more than 2,000 entrepreneurial opportunities for the people of Kelantan.

“ECERDC takes an integrated approach to drive investment growth across various sectors in Kelantan to encourage the growth of downstream industries for mineral resources, in addition to overcoming the contraction in the agricultural sector to ensure food security and long-term economic growth.

“One of the main focus areas of ECERDC is to ensure that the children of Kelantan can choose to ‘work, live and play’ without having to migrate abroad to find better opportunities,” he told reporters after the Kelantan state-level ECERDC 15th anniversary celebration ceremony here on Sunday (Dec 3).

The event was officiated by Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Mohd Nassuruddin Daud.

Baidzawi said that the ECERDC is also focusing specifically on the development of the agribusiness sector to support efforts to increase the country’s food security and will implement large-scale commercial chilli fertigation projects in several areas in Jeli, Kuala Krai, Gua Musang and Machang that have been approved by the Ministry of Economy.

“ECERDC’s role as an investment promotion agency will boost the industrial sector, especially manufacturing, semiconductor and green technology sectors, which will emerge as important contributors to the state’s gross domestic product (GDP).

“With the Kelantan special tax Incentives, as well as the East Coast Rail Line (ECRL) project which will be completed by 2027, I am confident that it will further increase the potential for new investments and the attractiveness of the state of Kelantan to investors,” he said.

At the event, Mohd Nassuruddin said that since the establishment of ECERDC, Kelantan has received many benefits in terms of investment, the development of infrastructure and logistics projects as well as human capital development programmes to help the people, especially the B40 group.

“We always support ECERDC’s efforts to make Kelantan a preferred investment destination by coordinating the state government’s planning and providing a conducive investment facilitation mechanism, ensuring that the state is investor-friendly,” he said. – BK