The Star Online: Metro: South & East
The Star Online: Metro: South & East |
- Ismail: Incentives announced by Govt in 2013 Budget will spur IM’s growth
- Clinic providing efficent services
- Maulizan: Headmasters the forefront of Govt’s Education Blueprint
| Ismail: Incentives announced by Govt in 2013 Budget will spur IM’s growth Posted: 30 Sep 2012 07:37 PM PDT JOHOR BARU: The mammoth Iskandar Malaysia growth corridor here will benefit from the various initiatives, plans, and incentives announced by the government in the 2013 Budget. Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) chief executive officer Datuk Ismail Ibrahim thanked the Government for its continuous commitment to induce investment growth whilst balancing the needs and aspirations of the people. "This budget reflects how the Government is sensitive to the current landscape with increasing prices and true to the people's needs. "We are pleased that many of the key growth announcements are in line with the initiatives already in plan and mapped out in Iskandar Malaysia's (Iskandar) development plan," Ismail added. He welcomed the Government's commitment to build more affordable and comfortable housing units in main cities including Johor Baru, adding this would definitely attract more Malaysians to call Iskandar their home. He also applauded the announcement which outlined specific incentives for various sectors which were being promoted and developed in Iskandar. For example, he said, qualified Oil and Gas companies in Tanjung Langsat and Tanjung Bin could enjoy 100% exemption from statutory income tax for the first three years of their operations under the Global Incentive for Trading (GIFT). "We also appreciate the introduction of various incentives – both tax and non-tax - to provide a conducive investment environment to support the development of the Oil and Gas industry, which is one of the promoted sectors in Iskandar," Ismail added. In the area of Tourism, he added that many are expected to visit the state especially with the opening of Legoland Malaysia in Nusajaya and Johor Premium Outlets in Kulaijaya. "We expect tour operators in Iskandar to be definitely pleased with this announcement made in the budget for the tourism sector. "I would like to advise the tour operators to take up this challenge and grab the opportunity to provide tourists quality service and an experience that they will remember." Ismail added. On Friday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is also the Finance Minister, said in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2013/2014, the Government has allocated RM358 million under development expenditure to target 26.8million tourist arrivals. Tour operators who bring in at least 750 foreign tourists or handle 1,500 local tourists a year are also eligible for income tax exemption to be extended for three years. On the development of small and medium scale exterprise (SME) Ismail said IRDA would work closely with SME-related Government agencies to ensure the fast-track of SME development in Iskandar to meet the demand of catalytic projects which were already here and coming on-stream. He added that the investment marketplace would be further boosted with the focus on building and promoting of the Halal Industry and continued building capacity of Bumiputera entrepreneur development. Ismail added that the continued focus on Tabung Ekonomi Kumpulan Usaha Niaga (Tekun), allocation of RM350million including RM50mil to the Malaysian-Indian community, would provide a boost for entrepreneurs to be part of the growth in Iskandar Malaysia. Ismail added that Iskandar shared positively the Budget's approach in prioritizing human capital development to ensure talents are equipped with the right skills to meet the industry's demand and looked forward to the launch of the Nation's Graduate Employability Blueprint by year end. "The focus to create a professional and talented workforce in selected industries of Oil and Gas, Information Communication and Technology (ICT), Creative and Bio-technology will ensure a ready pool of high-skilled knowledge workers in Iskandar," he said. He added that the move to provide incentives for Intellectual Property Rights development was on the right track and would create new sustainable companies from the innovative and creative industry. |
| Clinic providing efficent services Posted: 30 Sep 2012 07:39 PM PDT LABIS: The Labis health clinic has received over 4,000 patients since its opening end of last year. Labis MP Datuk Chua Tee Yong said it was important to enhance local folks to good health care services. The RM20mil health clinic opened its door on Nov 11 last year and is manned by a team of doctors and nurses. The range of facilities include 24-hour emergency service, X-Ray, pharmacy and family health care. It was mooted a few years ago when MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek was Health Minister then, said Chua before officiating a Youth Carnival organised by Labis health clinic advisory panel. The event held at Dataran Labis recently was attended by more than 300 youths from eight schools in the constituency. Various activities such as netball and futsal competition, talk on diet plans for youth, religious seminar, first-aid demonstration and exhibition by various government agencies, government link companies and non-governmental organisations were carried out during the one-day programme. Labis health clinic advisory panel representative R. Ramakrishnan said the event was aimed at fostering closer ties with local communities especially among young people. It was also held to increase involvement of youth in government agencies, government link companies and non-governmental organisations, he said. "We hope to promote healthy activities among the youth and introduce them to the various agencies available around them," he added. |
| Maulizan: Headmasters the forefront of Govt’s Education Blueprint Posted: 30 Sep 2012 04:36 PM PDT JOHOR BARU: Principals should play a vital role to ensure that the Government's Education Blueprint 2013-2025 would become a success. Johor Education and Higher Learning executive councillor Datuk Maulizan Bujang said principals would be the forefront of the new education plan in the hope of getting the students to become human capital. He added that to ensure that the Education Blueprint become a success, principals must transform themselves to encourage the students as well as the teachers in their respective schools. Maulizan also said that academic qualification and high education background were needed to support the country's development programmes. "An international study in 2007 showed that there was a decrease among Malaysian students compared with other countries where less than 20% of our students failed to achieve minimum level in Mathematic and Science. "Besides that, 77% of the country's workforce only have SPM-level background and 28% of those are the highly skilled workers," he said in his speech when he officiated the opening of the state level Malaysia Principals Council here. Maulizan added that the main focus of the Education Blueprint is to develop each student individually to allow them to become a success and contributing to the nation's growth. "At the same time, the country's education system would stress on absorbing important ethics and value into the students and help Malaysia to achieve Vision 2020. "To encourage the students creativity and innovation the usage of computers would be increased in schools just like highly income nations," he said. Maulizan added that schools and its principals would be responsible for their students' achievement and the quality of the teachers would be further developed and strengthened. He pointed out that to ensure the programme achieved its target, the Government hopes that education officers in school administration mainly secondary schools would support it. |
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