PRIME Minister Anwar Ibrahim will meet his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong tomorrow to affirm their commitments in two mega projects, marking another milestone in bilateral ties. 

In the morning, they are scheduled to visit the Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link project, where both leaders would get an update on the progress of the billion-ringgit project. 

The RTS Link project is a railway shuttle link of about 4km with two stations, one in Bukit Chagar, Johor Baru and another in Woodlands North, Singapore. 

MRT Corp has been tasked to develop the 2.7km Malaysia portion of the rail link and the requisite structures while the operations were slated to be undertaken jointly by Prasarana Malaysia Bhd and its Singaporean counterpart SMRT Corp Ltd. 

Once completed, the RTS Link would be the third land bridge to Singapore and could likely ease some of the “headache” of the “infamous” traffic legacy or congestion at the Johor Causeway. 

Apart from RTS, Anwar and Lee would then proceed to another event to witness the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone between Malaysia and Singapore. 

The idea was first mooted by Malaysia’s Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli after a meeting with the Johor state government at Iskandar Puteri in May last year and both countries agreed to take a step further by setting up a special task force to study the establishment of the special economic zone two months after that.  

Johor Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi welcomed the idea, saying the “success” of the economic zone could lead it to flourish like the Chinese city of Shenzhen, transformed from a small city of 300,000 people to a high-tech international metropolis of over 17 million people within four decades. 

For 2022, it was reported that Johor secured RM70.6 billion worth of foreign investments in various sectors. 

Singapore was reported as the state’s second-largest foreign investor, contributing to around 70% of Johor’s total foreign direct investment in the manufacturing sector. 

Thus, the creation of the new economic zone could further boost cross-border trade and business activities not only between Malaysia and Singapore but make it an attractive spot in the Asian region – Bernama, January 10, 2024.