Chinese developer Country Garden Pacificview (CGPV) will increase its efforts to lure Thai tourism and medical market players to invest in its Forest City megaproject in Johor, Malaysia.
With gth at home lagging, developers in China have started to look abroad. The Iskandar economic zone where the project sits is close to three times the size of Singapore.
Forest City is a mixed-use development adjacent to the Malaysia-Singapore second link. It is a joint venture development between Country Garden and its Malaysian partner Esplanade Danga 88 Sdn Bhd.
CGPV president and chief strategy officer Runze Yu said the company recently established a marketing office in Bangkok to increase Thai investment in the southern Malaysian city.
"We are hoping to achieve some deals in the future, but we won't provide details at this stage," Mr Yu said.
The company is also promoting the megaproject with Thai tourists by marketing its strong duty-free and eco-tourism offerings. The company targeting mature citizens seeking retirement homes, and foreigners living in Thailand.
Last year, CGPV made inroads in other markets, including Indonesia, Japan, India, and United Arab Emirates. The company is currently focusing its marketing efforts in Laos, Vietnam and the Philippines.
The city will take 20 years to complete, and has a development budget of US$100 billion (S$135.96 billion). It will be composed of four reclaimed islands with high business activity, and innovative urban features.
CGPV injected more than 35 billion baht (S$1.43 billion) into the project in the past three years, mostly on land and the hotel project.
The first phrase of the project will be completed in 2020, and will house shopping areas, offices, upscale apartments, schools, hotels and facilities for meetings, incentives, conferences and events. The new township will have 250,000 residential units and serve 700,000 people, Mr Yu said.
More than 15,000 residential units have been sold to investors and buyers from 23 countries. Chinese buyers dominate the market, with close to 70% of sales volume.
The city will bring a much needed supply of mixed-use development to Singapore, where high demand and few available units have put prices out of reach of many. In particular the project's lower prices are luring many companies to relocate.
The project attracted more than 120,000 tourists last year, half of whom came from Singapore.
Last Friday, the company opened the world's largest Industrialised Building System (IBS) factory, which is expected to speed up the project.
Baiyuan Su, chief executive of CGPV, said the factory incorporated technology from Germany, Italy and China, and can produce materials for up to 1 million square meters of built-up area.
The factory will house the entire production base for the construction of Forest City, and will integrate construction design, precast concrete production, transportation, accessory processing and assembly construction. The building will also house a materials R&D facility.
CGPV plans to add up five more factories to the 417-acre site, Mr Su said.
"The factories will six factories produce enough materials to support the equivalent of 6 million square meters of built-up area," he added.
The Forest City will strengthen economic ties between China and Asean, and will constitute a solid example of what can be achieved through the "One Belt, One Road" initiative.
The company also recently revealed the design of the city's landmark building. The mixed-use facility will be completed in 2020, and will house offices, upscale apartments, a five-star hotel and MICE facilities.
This article first appeared in Bangkok Post on 7 Aug 2017