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Malaysia and Singapore have agreed collectively to develop a particular financial zone within the southern Malaysian state of Johor, with the purpose of attracting funding and growing the motion of products and folks throughout their shared border.
In a ceremony yesterday, Financial system Minister Rafizi Ramli and Singapore’s Commerce and Trade Minister Gan Kim Yong signed a memorandum of understanding on the Johor-Singapore Particular Financial Zone (JS-SEZ). In a subsequent joint assertion, the 2 sides stated that they’d work in the direction of establishing a whole settlement throughout their eleventh Leaders Retreat later this yr.
“Underneath the MoU, Malaysia and Singapore will work in the direction of enhancing cross-border flows of products and folks in addition to strengthen the enterprise ecosystem inside SEZ to assist investments,” they stated within the assertion. “The SEZ rides on the robust progress of Johor and important investments within the area by Singapore.”
Malaysia’s Financial system Minister Rafizi Ramli stated that the JS-SEZ “presents an unprecedented alternative” for each nations to boost the diploma of crossborder commerce and motion.
Based on the joint assertion, Singapore and Malaysia are additionally exploring different initiatives that can “construct in the direction of” the JS-SEZ, together with a passport-free clearance system on each side of the border and potential renewable vitality cooperation.
The signing of the MOU got here shortly after Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim witnessed the completion of the primary connecting span of the sunshine rail (or RTS) hyperlink connecting Singapore and Johor’s state capital Johor Bahru.
Based on Singapore’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs, the 4-kilometer hyperlink will join Bukit Chagar station in Johor Bahru with the Woodlands North station in Singapore. It’ll have a peak capability of as much as 10,000 passengers per hour in every path, and is designed to ease site visitors congestion on the Johor-Singapore Causeway, one of many world’s busiest land crossings. The RTS, which value an estimated, 10 billion ringgit ($2.2 billion), is predicted to start passenger service on the finish of 2026.
The rail hyperlink is simply the most recent improve to the Causeway, which was constructed in 1924 and has been widened and expanded quite a few instances within the years since.
In a put up on Fb, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wrote that the hyperlink “brings our friendship and bilateral ties nearer.” He added that the RTS and JS-SEZ would “improve cross-border hyperlinks, assist companies, and create jobs on each side of the Causeway.”
Each agreements are aimed toward tightening the already shut financial interdependence between Singapore and peninsular Malaya, with which the Lion Metropolis was united briefly earlier than its expulsion from the Malaysian Federation in 1965. The border between the 2 nations is likely one of the busiest on the earth, with greater than 350,000 individuals commuting from Malaysia to Singapore throughout the Johor-Singapore Causeway every day.
Malaysia and Singapore have additionally mentioned the development of a 350-kilometer high-speed railway connecting Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. The undertaking was first introduced in 2013, however was finally terminated in 2020 attributable to disagreements and funding constraints on the Malaysian facet. Current months have introduced stories that Anwar’s authorities could also be eager about reviving the undertaking, if the price may be considerably lowered.
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