Oral reply to PQ on projected economic and job creation benefits of JS-SEZ

Question

Mr Saktiandi Supaat: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry (a) what are the projected economic and job creation benefits and which sectors will benefit from the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ); (b) whether the Government is concerned that some sectors will be adversely affected and certain investments and firms will relocate to JS-SEZ; and (c) whether there are Government incentive schemes such as productivity grants or investment incentives that can be extended to Singapore companies investing in the JS-SEZ.

Oral Answer (to be attributed to Minister of State for Trade and Industry Alvin Tan)

1. The Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ) seeks to capitalise on the complementary strengths of Singapore and Johor to strengthen Singapore’s competitiveness and to create good jobs for Singaporeans. Businesses across sectors including manufacturing, logistics, and digital economy can benefit from the improved cross-border flow of goods and people, and ease of doing business in the JS-SEZ.

2. Many Singapore-based companies already have twinning operations in Singapore and Johor. Firms could benefit from siting some of their operations in Johor to take advantage of the resources there, whilst focusing HQ and research functions in Singapore, where we have relative strengths. For instance, South Korea’s SPC Group, the parent company of Paris Baguette, operates its regional headquarters and innovation centre in Singapore, while its regional production base is in Johor.

3. We can also jointly attract new investments to the JS-SEZ, which may establish operations in Singapore or tap on the services provided by Singapore. For example, Agrocorp, an agri-commodities and food ingredient firm headquartered in Singapore, recently expanded its downstream capabilities in plant protein extraction with a new plant with its Japanese partner in Johor. This plant will use protein extraction technology developed by Agrocorp and the Singapore Institute of Technology. These investments in Johor create value for the Singapore economy as our firms grow. I caught up with SBF recently and they told me that over a 100 Singapore firms will be joining the SBF Business Mission to the JS-SEZ later this month, so there is also considerable investment interest in there.

4. In that vein, we will continue to support businesses in Singapore through existing enterprise support schemes. Eligible Singapore companies investing in JS-SEZ can seek support from schemes such as the Market Readiness Assistance (MRA) Grant and Enterprise Financing Scheme (EFS) administered by Enterprise Singapore. Malaysia has also announced an incentive package for the JS-SEZ, including special corporate and income tax rates for qualifying investments, and intend to announce more details when ready.