East Coast Economic Region Development Council (ECERDC) is “ready” to launch its Masterplan 2.0 soon.

“Between 2018-2025, we have set a new target of RM70 billion investment,” ECERDC’s CEO Datuk Seri Jebasingam Issace John tells BFM.

The new investment target will bring the total of investments for ECERDC to RM180 billion in 2025.

Over the last decade, the East Coast region accumulated RM111 billion of private investments up to 2017, a target actually set for 2020.

Manufacturing accounts for about half of investments pumped into the region, followed by tourism and oil & gas.

Moving forward, Issace John says ECERDC’s Masterplan 2.0 will look at productivity, where the region will move to a knowledge based economy from a traditional manufacturing one.

He acknowledges that they have to “gear and prepare” themselves for Industry 4.0.

Issace John also talks about the the implementation of high-impact public infrastructure projects such as the Kuantan Port expansion, East Coast Expressway (Phase 3) and the East Coast Rail Line (ECRL) will play in the East coast.

We ask him the reasons behind the escalating cost of the ECRL.

Is the latest figure of RM55 billion for the ECRL a finalised or moving figure?

BFM also asks him if we are relying too heavily on the Chinese.

Of the foreign direct investments into the East Coast, 30% is from China.

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