IPOH: The Movie Animation Park Studios (MAPS) here will not be closed down even though it has failed to repay its principal payment amounting to RM25.7 million to Affin Hwang Investment Bank Bhd (Affin Investment).
Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu said Perak Corporation Berhad (PCB) and its subsidiary, Animation Theme Park Sdn Bhd (ATP) would be in discussions with the bank on the matter.
“The bank needs to understand that the business has to go on to recoup its money,” he told reporters after chairing a Drug Eradication Action Council meeting here today.
On Friday, The Edge Markets reported that Affin Investment on Dec 4 had appointed Datuk Duar Tuan Kiat of Messrs Ernst & Young as receiver and manager of property belonging to ATP which is the operator of MAPS.
In this regard, the ATP management has been suspended with immediate effect and all financial transactions and operations were placed under Duar Tuan Kiat as the receiver and manager of the property.
Ahmad Faizal said the Pakatan Harapan-led state government had taken various measures to settle the problems faced by MAPS including reducing the number of workers at the theme park.
“They have built MAPS by incurring such a huge debt which runs into hundreds of millions. For more than a year, we have been trying to save MAPS.
“Today, we have succeeded in reducing its overheads and generate more revenue and have succeeded in paying workers. However, in the past two months, we have been unable to settle RM21 million which resulted in default payment leading to the bank’s action,” he said.
MAPS which was built at a cost of RM520 million, was opened to public in June 2017.
In another development, Ahmad Faizal slammed the action of a handful of non-governmental organisations which were quick to expose issues on environment to the media compared to reporting them to the authorities or the state government.
“If there are any illegal activities or environmental issues, tell me or the authorities. But they rather go to the media earlier, how are we going to take action?” he said.
Ahmad Faizal was commenting on media reports on claims by Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) that about 20 hectares of the 500.2 hectares of Kledang Siong forest reserve near Chemor had been cleared. — Bernama
