The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Industrial boom hits Bintulu
- GDI: Malaysia second most dynamic in Asean
- World Bank chief confident of Chinese growth target
| Posted: KUCHING: Bintulu has emerged as Sarawak's property "hot spot", thanks to the soaring prices of its residential, commercial and industrial properties. Property prices in the industrial town have been pushed up to levels never seen before, overtaking the state's capital Kuching, because of the high demand brought about by the current third industrial boom. Big foreign and local investments worth billions of ringgit are pouring into mega industrial projects like the aluminium and ferrosilicon/manganese smelting plants under the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) development project. The town is experiencing a big influx of outsiders, mostly expatriates and workers and their families, piling pressure on accommodation needs. Double-storey semi-detached houses launched here in first-half 2013 were priced at RM633,000-RM840,000 as compared with RM359,000-RM1.12mil in Kuching, according CH Williams Talhar Wong & Yeo Sdn Bhd (WTWY). The property consultant said double-storey terraced houses (intermediate) in Bintulu were fetching RM366,000-RM430,000 against Kuching's RM308,000-RM502,000. In its newly-released bulletin on "Sarawak's first half-2013 Property Market Review," WTWY said three-storey shophouses (intermediate) in Bintulu were commanding between RM976,000 and RM1.8mil, which is higher than the RM930,000-RM1.18mil in Kuching. A similar scenario is being seen in industrial property, as semi-detached industrial units are being offered in the RM1.15mil-RM1.82mil range, which is significantly higher than the RM788,000 in the state capital. Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers Association secretary Sim Kian Chiok atttributed Bintulu's soaring property prices to a "mistmatch in supply and demand." "We are not surprised by the big increases in the property prices. But the fast pace of industrial development under SCORE has caught us up," he told StarBiz. Sim said about two or three big industries in Samalaju Industrial Park outside Bintulu town had commenced operations, while the proposed manufacturing plants of several other energy-intensive industries were in various stages of construction. Press Metal Bhd's aluminium smelting plant was the first in Samalaju to be commissioned about a year ago. The energy-intensive industries are capitalising on the competitively-priced hydro power from Bakun Dam and Murum Dam, which is near completion, to power their plants. Sim said the influx of investors and workers had put pressure on the limited residential accommodation, thereby pushing up their prices and rental. According to Sarawak's Assistant Housing Minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, monthly rental for a terraced house in Bintulu could go up to as high as RM2,000. Abdul Karim has acknowledged that Bintulu currently had the highest property prices in Sarawak. There have been reports, according to Sim, that rental for rooms had hit RM900 each a month. "While it is easy to mobilise a few hundred workers within a short time, it would take four to five years to deliver new houses. "The property prices in Bintulu could still go up a bit more before more supplies (new projects) come into the market," he said. Sim said the authorities had approved many new residential and commercial projects to ease the tight demand. He said the setting up of big industries had resulted in the growth of supporting industries like food and beverage and services. "This creates demand for commercial properties, like shophouses, from the new supporting industries." Besides the heavy industries, the new Samalaju deepsea project and liquified natural gas (LNG) Train 9 project, both billion-ringgit investments, are also under development in Bintulu. WTWY figures revealed that in the first six months, 621 shophouses, mostly three storeys high, were under construction in Bintulu, while 34 units of two-storey shophouses had been completed. During the same period, 1,556 units of residential houses were under construction against 306 completed units. The demand for quality residential homes, especially for expatriates and executives of multinational corporations, has prompted big developers to venture into high-end condominium and serviced-apartment projects. Sarawak Land (Kemena Park) Sdn Bhd recently launched two blocks of a 27-storey high-end condominium project called "The Pinnacles" along Jalan Tanjung Batu. With a scenic view of the South China Sea, The Pinnacles will be Sarawak's tallest residential building when completed. |
| GDI: Malaysia second most dynamic in Asean Posted: PETALING JAYA: The Grant Thornton Global Dynamism Index (GDI) 2013 has ranked Malaysia as Asean's second most dynamic country after Singapore. Now in its second year, the GDI ranks 60 of the largest economies in the world on their dynamism, drawing on both economic and business survey data. It scores each economy across five key areas of dynamism – business operating environment, economics and growth, science and technology, labour and human capital, and financing environment – producing an overall score. Singapore had a score of 61.9, the highest in Asean, followed by Malaysia with 59.5 and Thailand with 56.4. Malaysia ranked second best in key areas such as business operating environment (74) and financing environment (60) in Asean for growing businesses. SJ Grant Thornton managing partner Datuk N.K. Jasani said: "Malaysia is ranked 13th globally by the GDI, a major improvement of 11 places from the year before. "Our country also provides a good financing environment, as we scored the highest in Asean for access to medium-term capital (85)." In comparison with other countries globally, Malaysia is performing strongly in key areas such as economics and growth, ranking eighth (73), labour and human capital, ranking 11th (62) and financing environment, ranking 16th (60). "We have climbed to the eighth ranking in economics and growth, boosted by higher gross domestic product (GDP) and consumption growth. Our real GDP growth is ranked ninth in the world (84)," he said. |
| World Bank chief confident of Chinese growth target Posted: SHANGHAI: China should hit its gross domestic product growth target of 7.5% this year, World Bank group president Kim Jim Yong said yesterday. But he warned that rising interest rates in emerging markets in response to reports that the United States was preparing to scale back its quantitative easing (QE) programme showed that significant risk remained. "The rise in interest rates as a result of the announcement of the tapering of QE has exposed weaknesses in the economies of emerging markets," he told reporters. "Our message is very strong to those emerging markets: think about those weaknesses and begin to move." Several investment banks upgraded near-term forecasts for China's growth after a run of strong data for August, including factory output and exports, and many now have full-year growth above the government's official target of 7.5%. UBS, Deutsche Bank, CICC and Nomura were among the banks to upgrade their growth forecasts for 2013 after the recent data, and now all have it 7.6% or higher. Kim was in Shanghai as part of a four-day tour focusing on expanding collaboration with China on climate change. Power consumption in China, the world's top energy user, is expected to grow more than 9% this year, faster than the 5.5% growth rate in 2012, according to the State Electricity Regulatory Commission. Much of that consumption is driven by inefficiently designed and poorly insulated buildings. – Reuters |
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