Iskandar Malaysia Iskandar Malaysia

Iskandar Malaysia Launches 15-Year Campaign And Introduces 'Secure@IskandarMalaysia' Initiative To Help Sustain Socio-Economic Recovery

Iskandar Malaysia, 1 February

Iskandar Malaysia, today, launched its 15-year campaign and at the same time introduced the ‘SECURE@IskandarMalaysia’ initiative which aims at helping Rakyat and small businesses to sustain their economic recovery.

“15 years ago, Iskandar Malaysia was earmarked as the economic corridor for the southern region and as the first, out of five, to be created in Malaysia due mainly to the location and the abundant resources that the state of Johor can offer.”

“Today, I believe Iskandar Malaysia has proven itself to be capable of reaching to its vision of becoming a strong and sustainable metropolis of international standing, with the teamwork and support from all the players,” said Yang Amat Berhormat Datuk Haji Hasni bin Mohammad, Menteri Besar Johor at the launch of the ‘Iskandar Malaysia 15-Year Commemorative Campaign’ or ‘IM15CC’.

According to Yang Berbahagia Datuk Ismail Ibrahim, Chief Executive of Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA), “The campaign is not a celebration, but we want it to be an inspiration to many based on the past 15 years of development and achievements of the region.”

“Since its inception, Iskandar Malaysia has recorded total cumulative investment of RM337.3 billion with some of the biggest foreign investors coming from China, USA, Japan, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Spain, India, Australia United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, France and ASEAN countries.”

These investments gave birth to a range of internationally recognized hospitals and medical centres, universities and schools, theme parks, a film studio, hotels, shopping centres and modern industrial parks, all contributing to the benefit of the Rakyat which currently stands at more than 2 million people in the region.

These investments, big and small, have partly contributed to the creation of more than 800,000 jobs and 95,000 SMEs in the region since 2006.
On the subject of Rakyat who are affected during this COVID-19 pandemic, Iskandar Malaysia has taken one step further to ensure that not only can the small business and people survive but their recovery and survival can be sustained for a longer period through the pandemic and even afterwards.

In conjunction with the launch of the Iskandar Malaysia 15-year Commemorative Campaign, Iskandar Malaysia also announced the ‘Sustainable Socio-Economic Recovery Initiative in Iskandar Malaysia’ or ‘SECURE@IskandarMalaysia’.” SECURE@IskandarMalaysia is a collection of programmes that will sustain the socio-economic recovery of the community and SME in Iskandar Malaysia through 3 areas which are capacity building, reskilling and upskilling, and funds and grants.

Under this initiative applicants can look for the right programme to help them recover and sustain their livelihood from reskilling and upskilling technical skills, building soft skills to getting the necessary grants and funds to back their businesses.

The Iskandar Malaysia ‘Youth To Biz’ or ‘Y2B’ programme, for example, is a 50:50 matching grant concept for mobile vehicle businesses or business shared facilities with a maximum grant of RM150,000.

The IM Makmur programme, on the other hand, focuses on the minority groups such as single mothers, orphans, fishermen, persons with disabilities, senior citizens and indigenous people to help them overcome the barriers in generating income. This includes support for job-based and entrepreneurial skills and tuitions for their children.

For local businesses, the Iskandar Malaysia Employment Grant can help them retain current employees and recruit new ones through salary grant matching for up to 6 months.
Urban farming is becoming increasingly popular and for those who want to be part of the business, they can look forward to the Iskandar Malaysia Urban Farming programme. There are several options to be a modern farmer in Iskandar Malaysia either through the outdoor integrated farming concept, indoor farming system or the hi-tech modular vertical farming with IoT solutions.

In addition to the initiative above, IRDA will also be organising the ‘Iskandar Learning Festival’ or ‘ILF’. This year-long informative and educational festival is aimed at enhancing the knowledge and skills of the people through various online sharing sessions.

Amongst the topics includes e-commerce, smart city, employment, tourism, human resource, leadership, capacity building and promoted sectors specific.
For more information on the Iskandar Malaysia 15-Year Commemorative Campaign or IM15CC, please visit www.iskandarmalaysia.com.my/IM15CC.

“There will be many activities organized under the 15-year campaign and we hope that everyone can participate in these, whether to gain additional knowledge and skills, make changes in your lifestyle, co-branding your businesses or just to win a prize or two from the competitions we will be running,” said Ismail.