ISKANDAR PUTERI,23rdAPRIL 2025:Forest City, currently emerging as a strategic international financial and business hub, is reported to be on the right track to become a prime investment destination

Strategically located in Johor Bahru, Forest City has recently been designated as a Special Financial Zone (SFZ), which is part of the broader Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ) and offers a tailored environment for financial services.

To date, 32 companies have expressed their interest in setting up operations in the Forest City SFZ, according to Lee Ting Han, Johor investment, trade, consumer affairs and human resources committee chairman.

"Of which, 19 companies of whom hail from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand have expressed their interest to set up family offices, 2 companies have officially obtained approval from the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC).

"Everything that the Johor state government and federal government has planned in order to ensure the success of Forest City’s as a SFZ, JS-SEZ and Johor overall, are on the right track.

“All related agencies are also working aggressively to attract investors to the southern state," he told Forest City when asked about the latest development on investment.

Lee added, Malaysian renowned investment firm CMY Capital and Yow Kee Family Office becoming the first batch of family offices to settle in the Forest City SFZ.

He said, this milestone marks a crucial step for Forest City in its journey to become a regional financial hub and will create a demonstration effect, with expectations that multiple family offices and financial institutions will follow suit and set up operations in 2025.

According to Lee, under the newly announced SFZ, several incentives have been announced including a 0% corporate tax rate for family offices, a 0% to 5% corporate tax rate and a 15% flat income tax rate for knowledge-based workers.

He added that the Ministry of Finance is working on making the incentive packages legally binding, which is scheduled to be in place soon. In the meantime, applications are processed on a case by case basis in order to speed up approval process and attract more investment to the SFZ.

Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Malaysia has brought huge development opportunities for the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. 

During this visit, the Chinese and Malaysian governments officially signed a visa exemption agreement between the two countries. As investment destinations, the state of Johor and the Forest City SFZ are bound to receive more investment attention.

In a Facebook post on April 16, His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia said, there is great potential for Chinese companies and investors to explore opportunities in this country as it aligns with regional connectivity high-quality development under China's Belt and Road Initiative.

“With strong strategic incentives and a favourable location, the Forest City SFZ within the JS-SEZ has emerged as one of the region’s prime investment destinations,” said His Majesty.

Lee said, as part of the SFZ and JS-SEZ initiative, the government is actively engaging with potential investors to better understand their needs and investment priorities. 

He highlighted that the government is open to offering tailored, prepackaged incentives particularly for anchor investors based on specific requirements they may have. 

In order to ensure a smooth transition, Lee said the Invest Malaysia Facilitation Centre Johor (IMFCJ) has been created as a one-stop centre for investors.

"IMFCJ at the moment is a facilitation centre, whereby they are only required to go to the centre where you will be assigned an account manager to look at your files. 

“The account manager’s job scope is to assist with the investors, to deal with local authorities, Federal government agencies as well as utilities company,” he said, adding that the services act as a facilitation for investors.

Lee said that since January 2025 to present, they have received more than 250 inquiries at the IMFCJ office.