SHAH ALAM: PricewaterhouseCoopers will be appointed to conduct an independent overall audit on the accounts of the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project.
Port Klang Authority (PKA) chairman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng said he proposed PricewaterhouseCoopers to PKA’s board of directors at their meeting yesterday and the board had agreed.
“We will now send the proposal to the Treasury Department for final approval,” he said.
Lee, who accompanied Transport Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat on a tour of PKFZ yesterday, told a press conference that the decision to hire an international firm was made to add credibility to the findings.
He said there were many wrong perceptions on how the RM4.6bil soft loan from the Federal Government had been used by PKA and a credible firm’s findings would help strengthen the Government and PKA’s explanations on the funds and the project.
Ong said the PKFZ was not a white elephant or a ghost town as claimed by many people.
He said that so far, 47 foreign investors had signed agreements with PKFZ’s management or had already set up business in the free trade zone, bringing in a total investment of RM748mil and offering 972 jobs.
“Another 46 foreign investors with a cumulative investment of RM614mil will complete their formalities by the third and fourth quarters of this year and they will provide another 830 jobs,” he said.
Ong said the first to sign an agreement among the 46 was a corporation that would develop the Halal Industries Zone, providing 60 light industrial units and the deal would be completed on May 12.
He also said that the PKFZ was expected to attract a total of between RM5bil and RM6bil in investments by the year 2015 and provide between 25,000 and 30,000 jobs.
Ong said Lee would continue to meet with the press to provide information on the project in stages, once it had been audited.
On the Selangor Government’s offer to take over the project to revive it, he said he welcomed any suggestion to help improve the PKFZ, even if it was from the Opposition as he, too, was looking at ways to make it easier for investors to set up business in the zone.
