Malaysia Vision Valley project to be launched by first quarter 2017

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysia Vision Valley project, seven years in the making, is expected to be launched by the prime minister by the first quarter of 2017, said Sime Darby Property managing director Datuk Jauhari Hamidi.
“The project is likely to be launched by the prime minister by the first quarter of 2017. We have done the master concept plan and comprehensive development plan but the prime minister will announce the details,” he told SunBiz in an interview.
The massive project, which will be led by Sime Darby, is a public-private partnership development covering up to 108,000ha, sprawling from Nilai to Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan. Sime Darby owns about 40% of the land.
In August, Sime Darby Bhd president and group chief executive Tan Sri Bakke Salleh said the conglomerate is coming up with an entity or vehicle to manage the development of the project.
Previously known as Sime Darby Vision Valley, the project originally had an estimated gross development value of RM25 billion to RM30 billion.
Under the master plan unveiled by Sime Darby back in 2009, the project originally took up over 32,000ha straddling Selangor and Negri Sembilan, and was to be developed over 20 years.
Back then, the government had earmarked the area for development under the National Physical Plan, which provides a long-term strategic framework for national spatial planning and includes measures required to shape the direction and pattern of land use, biodiversity conservation and development in Peninsular Malaysia.
Initial plans for the project comprised two main components namely, Selangor Vision City and Negri Sembilan Vision City. AirAsia Bhd had planned to develop a low-cost carrier terminal on some 1,214ha in Labu but the project was later scrapped.
The project was revived when the prime minister, in the Budget 2016 announcement, said the government will develop Malaysia Vision Valley with an initial investment of RM5 billion in 2016.
Vision Valley is expected to generate investments of more than RM417.6 billion by 2045, and is expected to see greater traction with the recent signing of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail, which will have one of its stops there.