Tee Keat trumpets PKFZ successes

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, who vowed to reveal all in the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) debacle, offered instead a testimonial of his own apparent success in revitalising the scandal-ridden project that helped force his predecessor out of office.

He told a press conference that the occupancy rate, employment, investment status and cargo movement have increased since he took over as Transport Minister.

The PKFZ project has been criticized because its development cost of less than RM2.5 billion had ballooned amid concerns about its ability to meet its debt obligations as well as that of the soft loan.

There were also questions about the possible kickbacks after it was disclosed that several individuals acquired the piece of land where the PKFZ now sits at RM3 per sq ft in 1999. The Port Klang Authority (PKA) later acquired the land at RM25 psf.

PKFZ ran into further problems when Jebel Ali Free Zone quit the management of the property.

Ong said PKFZ had recorded an increase of more than RM200 million in investments from March to November.

Occupancy rate for all facilities had also increased, with the leased office block recording the most significant increase from one per cent in March to 19% as of November.

For open land and light industrial unit facilities, the occupancy rate is now 18% and 17% cent respectively.

“The Jebel Ali took six years to have 40 per cent occupancy,” said Ong referring to the free zone in the United Arab Emirates.

Most importantly, said Ong, was the number of employees in the area which had increased from 972 to 1,659 within the last eight months.

“I still can remember when I first set foot in the area, people said this is a ghost town,” said Ong when elaborating on the success in increasing the number of employees in the PKFZ.

Source: The Malaysian Insider

Ong Tee Keat says he has done a great job of increasing the occupancy from 1% to 19% ... That is FANTASTIC! But ... 19% occupancy also means 81% unoccupied??? Let's say, you built 10 houses to be leased and only 2 houses is leased; won't it mean: you will be making a huge loss? Eight houses unoccupied and the developer says he has done a great job? Of course it has improved from 1% to 19% but the fact still remains that 81% remains unoccupied and 81% holding cost.

Anyway, let's celebrate too! Results are results ... if your son scored 1% in maths and science and has now scored 19%, though he still fails but he has improved tremendously, and if we allow this kid another 20 years at the same school and the same class, he may be able to further improve to 50% and pass his SRP exam at the age of 35. Still not too late.

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