Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced on Thursday that the country is generating sufficient energy surplus to support major development projects and enhance its exports, as it seeks to attract investors to a planned special economic zone (SEZ) in collaboration with neighboring Singapore.
The two nations aim to finalize an agreement by year-end to establish the SEZ in Malaysia's southern Johor state, strategically located just north of Singapore. This initiative is designed to attract investment and facilitate the movement of goods and people.
Prime Minister Anwar emphasized the government's commitment to renewable energy and energy transition initiatives, targeting net-zero emissions by 2050, while also focusing on projects like the Johor-Singapore SEZ. “Taken together with various energy-focused projects in all states and regions of Malaysia, we are confident of a surplus of energy that feeds developments such as the JS-SEZ, as well as have enough to grow our exports of energy,” Anwar stated at an investment event in Johor.
Johor is anticipated to experience increased energy demand, having attracted significant investments in data center facilities from technology companies, including Nvidia and China's ByteDance. This investment surge has bolstered Malaysia's economy, with growth surpassing expectations in the past two quarters and the local stock market emerging as the best performer in the region.
Anwar remarked that economic performance in the third quarter is also “looking promising.”
