Khalid to save PKFZ

Selangor Menteri Besar said his government wants to take over and manage operations at the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) as part of its overall revamp of troubled projects and corporations within the state to bring these back to the black.

Rather than letting this Port Klang project go to ‘waste’ at taxpayers’ expense, the Selangor state government will try to turn it around to make it economically viable, said MB Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.

“I think the least (that) the public expect is that people who benefited from this must pay for their sins or crimes (through legal action).”

“I’m going to request the federal government that we be allowed to operate it so that the state can make use of these assets and enhance the economic activities of the port,” Khalid said in an exclusive interview at his office in Shah Alam.

Otherwise, the 406 hectares of real estate on which PKFZ is sited and more than RM4 billion that has been committed to develop the project may be in danger of going to waste, given the lukewarm reception on the part of local and foreign investors, he said.

“We will take it over at book value of RM1 or RM2, and then we can do it better. If you leave it alone, it becomes a ghost town,” he said. - maverickysm