Port Klang Free Zone targets automotive, furniture players

By Jimmy Yeow
Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) wants to lure automotive, furniture and oil and gas players to

set up operations at the 405ha commercial and industrial zone, which is operational from Nov 1.
Its general manager Noel Gulliver said the free zone authority was in talks with car importers and furniture manufacturers.
“The furniture manufacturers can set up exhibition centres for their products,” he told FinancialDaily on Oct 31.
Gulliver said: “Aker Kvaerner, a Norwegian oil and gas company, has already taken up 28ha of land to set up a RM400 million manufacturing facility to support their oil and gas exploration activities in Asia Pacific.”
During a media tour of PKFZ, located next to Westport at Pulau Indah, on Oct 31, he said PKFZ is finalising discussions with five serious investors, mainly logistic players, to take up parcels of land covering 28.35ha.
He said the authority wants 70% of its tenants from overseas, with local businesses and infrastructure benefiting from providing services to these companies. “We would focus on global and local marketing aggressively to attract multinationals and small-to-medium enterprises,” he added.
Gulliver believed that it would take two to three years before PKFZ would contribute significantly to Port Klang’s cargo throughput.
PKFZ chairman Datin O C Phang said PKFZ, which is a national project to generate cargo for Port Klang, is not competing with other free zone operators.
The RM2.2 billion PKFZ, the country’s first fully integrated commercial and industrial zone, is designed and managed by JAFZA International, the consulting and management division of Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority (JAFZA) in Dubai.