As I see it | Revival of Malaysia’s Forest City, Melaka Gateway would give PM Anwar a boost

After years of neglect by past administrations, the Chinese-backed project is again in the spotlight as PM Anwar Ibrahim eyes investors from Singapore

Renewed interest in Forest City comes amid talk of reviving another Belt and Road Initiative project in Malaysia, the US$10 billion Melaka Gateway

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Condominiums at Forest City. Country Garden, China’s largest private developer, launched the project in 2016 as one of the flagships of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:30am, 15 Sep 2023

Malaysia’s controversial Forest City mega-project in southern Johor state is once again making headlines, after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim declared the creation of a Special Financial Zone to boost interest among potential investors from across the Causeway.

It was arguably the strongest endorsement by the government for the US$100 billion Chinese-built project after years of neglect by past administrations that viewed it as a politically unsafe bet amid rising ethno-nationalism and increasingly unaffordable housing for Malaysians.

Just five years ago, Forest City was a key rallying point for the federal opposition seeking to unseat then-prime minister Najib Razak and his previously undefeated Umno party and the Barisan Nasional coalition it leads.

Mahathir Mohamad, who had mentored both Anwar and Najib, called Forest City an exercise in selling land to foreigners without any consideration for the need to provide affordable housing to Malaysians, particularly the ethnic Malay majority.

Just months into his second tenure as prime minister in 2018, Mahathir imposed a ban on foreign ownership in the project, though he later walked back on it and said that the government would not issue entry visas based solely on ownership of properties in Forest City.

The motivations may have been almost entirely political, but the fallout from the attacks on the project has been palpable.

Country Garden, China’s largest private developer, launched the project in 2016 as one of the flagships of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative in Malaysia.

.css-1m2rp1p{color:#34b8b5;}As I see it | Revival of Malaysia’s Forest City, Melaka Gateway would give PM Anwar a boost

As I see it | Revival of Malaysia’s Forest City, Melaka Gateway would give PM Anwar a boost