In line with the RM75.96 billion committed investment in Iskandar Malaysia in the first half of 2011, two educational partners from Singapore are working with Iskandar Investment to develop projects in EduCity Iskandar Malaysia —Raffles University Iskandar (RUI) and MDIS Campus (Malaysia).
“This reflects the warming of ties between the business communities across borders and we anticipate more such collaborations in the future, especially as both governments continue to invest in building bilateral relations,” said Iskandar Investment.
As the largest private education provider in Asia Pacific, RafflesEducationCorp is developing Raffles University Iskandar (RUI) on a 65 acre campus in EduCity. It will become a significant institution in EduCity and is expected to enroll up to 5,000 students in its first five years of operations.
“This self-accrediting university will begin operations in October 2011 out of leased premises at Kotaraya, Johor Bahru, while its permanent campus in EduCity is being built. This multi-faculty campus is expected to be ready by the end of 2013.”
“RUI will initially provide undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in three faculties; Design & Art, Business and Education & Social Sciences. It will then be expanded to five faculties to include Health Sciences and Technology. Within this state-of-the-art lifestyle campus, RUI will provide a contemporary learning environment to foster creativity and innovation.”
Meanwhile, the RM163 million MDIS Campus (Malaysia) is expected to open in EduCity by 2014. It is five times bigger than its Singapore campus, and is the institute’s first venture into Malaysia and its second outside of Singapore.
In addition, Iskandar Investment has said that the recent Khazanah–Temasek announcement of the RM3 billion (GDV) iconic wellness project in Medini is a clear testament of confidence in Iskandar Malaysia.
“There has been a marked increase in interest from Singapore and the ASEAN region in the last couple of months since the announcement and we are keen to pursue more partnerships with well-reputed, Singaporean companies.”
When asked about the response of investors from other countries, it said that investors from the Middle East and Asia “have shown increasing interest in pursuing investment opportunities with us in Iskandar Malaysia.”
“We were successful in attracting globally reputed partners including Global Capital & Development (GCD) which is majority-owned by Mubadala, an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, and Kuwait Finance House.”
It noted that the free trade agreement between India and Malaysia, effective earlier this year, and the China-Asean Free Trade Area (Cafta) will provide “incentive for potential investors from India and China to tap into the opportunities in Iskandar Malaysia and Iskandar Investment is in strong stead to help them achieve this.”
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