Forest City taking root in Iskandar zone

The Forest City development, in Johor Bahru state, is touted as becoming a healthcare and tourism destination for business people, residents and visitors from around the Asia-Pacific region.
Among the firms and organisations that CGPV has signed memorandums of understanding with are Foshan Hospital, the Malaysian Healthcare Tourism Council (MHTC) and Focus Adventure.
Yu Runze, chief strategy officer for CGPV, said the firm is developing Forest City as an island city covering more than 30 square kilometres in the special economic zone. Work began on Forest City in 2015 as part of a 20-year undertaking that comprises four phases with total investment of US$100 billion. Yu expects the first phrase to be completed in 2020-21.
Forest City is being promoted as Southeast Asia's largest mixed-use green development in terms of the number of units to be built with “a vertical greenery and smart city design” theme. It will use a 3D multi-layered urban planning concept with ample greenery that will see no vehicles travelling on the surface of the forest-like environment. 
Under its ambitions for Forest City to become a healthcare and tourism hub, CGPV is linking up with Foshan Hospital, which has provided traditional Chinese medicine services in China for more than 60 years. Foshan Hospital will provide healthcare and medical treatment for residents and tourists alike. The agreement paves the way for the establishment of Foshan’s first hospital outside China, and potentially the largest traditional Chinese medicine hospital in Malaysia.
In CGPV’s cooperation with the MHTC, an agency under Malaysia’s Ministry of Health, it will tap opportunities in medical tourism. This collaboration will also result in the development of programmes that promote Malaysia as a destination for assisted reproductive-health services.

Focus Adventure
In the areas of tourism and eco-tourism, the firm is working with Focus Adventure, which is billed as an adventure training provider. It provides adventure-based experiential learning services as well as creating luxury camping facilities for visitors looking to reconnect with nature. 
The company will also conduct corporate client training programmes at Forest City, using experiential learning activities to enhance team building.
Yu said the company would work with Glyken Group, a Johor-based company that is actively involved in swiftlet farming, biotechnology products and original equipment manufacturing, to set up Southeast Asia largest bird’snest museum. The Glyken Group’s bird’s nest museum, covering 11,000 square feet, will be the largest of its kind in the region. 
Yu said the company will team up with Nashwork, a Chinese co-working space operator, to set up such facilities in Forest City. This will be Beijing-based Nashwork’s first foray outside China to tap demand for flexible working space arrangements in Malaysia and neighbouring Singapore.
“Thailand is our competitor in related healthcare and tourism services. We want to be a medical and tourism destination to provide medical services, eco-tourism and be a second home for senior people to stay here in a modern and green environment,” Yu said.
“The firm, however, will learn its business model from Thailand and has plans to join hand with Thai business to provide healthcare and tourism services to support customers, since Thai businesses have a good business model and have enjoyed success in these areas.”
 Yu added that the development would also boast three golf courses to support its tourism initiatives.
He said the 20-year project would also spur the development of other key industries including education and training. 
It could also support the regional headquarters of organisations and serve as a base for near-shore finance, e-commerce and other such operations in Asean.
He added that the project would support the application of emerging technologies and service centres for sectors related to a green and smart city developments across the region.
For the first phase, the company has spent around 5 billion ringgit so far, with about 40 per cent of the phase completed.