KUALA LUMPUR: The East Coast Economic Region (ECER) has attracted RM13.5bil worth of private investments into the region last year, surpassing its RM12bil target set for 2016, despite a challenging global economic environment.In a statement Thursday, ECER said its total private investments by end-2016 stood at RM101bil, achieving 91.8% of its RM110bil investment target for 2020, indicating the region’s stellar performance in its socio-economic transformation.ECER said the robust growth had provided immense employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for the rakyat with more than 130,000 new jobs and 23,000 entrepreneurs created and developed, largely benefitting the B40 income group across the urban and rural areas in the ECER.“The transformation agenda in the ECER is showing positive results with the region not only meeting, but also exceeding its private investment targets.“As a result, the rakyat is now reaping the benefits through better jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities,” East Coast Economic Region Development Council (ECERDC) chief executive officer Datuk Jebasingam Issace John said in the statement.“In fact, the region has recorded a compounded annual growth rate of private investments and job opportunities of 30% and 37% respectively since 2008. We are highly optimistic that ECER will continue to surpass its yearly investment targets through the concerted efforts of the Federal and State Governments,” he added.

Source: The Star January 26, 2017 06:35 UTC