Some SMEs rethink Iskandar plans as costs rise

[SINGAPORE] Some Singapore businesses are finding out that Iskandar Malaysia, touted as a more cost-effective destination for them, is no longer that cheap.

The rapidly rising land costs there, in addition to inadequate infrastructure and manpower challenges, are forcing some homegrown small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to rethink their plan to set up shop in the southern development corridor of peninsular Malaysia.

The Iskandar Malaysia website said commercial land prices there are expected to have gone up by at least 10 per cent in the course of last year alone; at the start of the year, land there had cost up to about RM400 (S$154) per square foot.