These satellite images show an area and southern Malaysia in 2011 and 2018.
What we see here is one of the most ambitious urban development projects currently underway;
an entire new city built from scratch.
[intro music]
This is Forest City, Malaysia.
Envisioned as a smart green city of the future, this place aims to be designed like no other.
With the construction still underway, we can already see the city take shape.
Once completed this city can house up to 700,000 people
with a total project budget of 100bn USD.
Now to understand why developers believe that their investment will pay off and that people will want to live here,
we need to focus on the location.
The city is being built in a Malaysian state of Johor in the southern part of the country.
Here the Johor strait acts as a natural border between Malaysia and the independent city-state Singapore.
This close proximity to the international business hubs is something that Forest City aims to profit from.
Singapore is one of the world's most important financial centres and the biggest transshipment port worldwide.
In terms of total container handling, it is the world's second busiest port right after Shanghai.
The living standard in the city is high; there are many jobs and there is far too little space.
Forest City makes itself out as a possible solution for this.
But while proximity to Singapore is important, the city also is planned to become a center itself
"For a city cannot be a bedroom town, like people are only sleeping here without doing any economic substance.
[Yu] So we have to rely on, you know, attracting business to here
In 2006, Malaysia founded the Iskandar special economic zone.
The government supports a number of projects that are intended to encourage private investment in the region
by providing infrastructure and commercial space. The government wants to create a business friendly environment
that encourages the development scene in Singapore to expand across the border.
Several projects were advanced including the fervor development of the central business district in the city of Johor Bahru.
The creation of international university campuses at edu city
- investments into the Tong Zhong palapas container port as well as the construction of a large
- industrial zone near Seneye International Airport.
Forest cities seem to fit with these plans and could become the center of a growing economic area in close proximity to Singapore in
- the first phase. However, only the first island is built and a further development depends entirely on demand.
The project developers advertise Forest City is being focused on environmental sustainability and improved quality of life.
The idea is to blend nature and architecture.
The concept envisions creating several levels so that parking spaces and streets
- disappear beneath green parks creating a car-free area above ground and
- the architecture should also follow the same philosophy as can already be seen with what is built so far. In
- addition, electrical public transport was planned and
- digitization should be used in order to manage resources effectively within the city.
The project planners also seem to be aware that this sustainability approach is at odds with the fact that this is a land reclamation project.
As much as the city advertises with its green approach, it is also just as much criticized for being environmentally harmful.
The islands are heaped up in an area with the largest seagrass meadow in Malaysia, which acts as a habitat for diverse marine life.
These fragile ecosystems are threatened by land reclamation.
The project developer has announced a number of compensating measures,
- including a seagrass plantation and newly planted mangrove forests.
In addition to environmental concerns there were also increasing political concerns.
The project is being developed by Country Garden Pacific View. This is a merger of various investors.
There is the Malaysian company Esplanade Danga 88 in which the state-owned investment arm of the Johor state of Malaysia
- holds stakes as well as the Sultan of Johor and a private investor closely associated with the Sultan.
With a share of 60% the main developer is the Chinese company Country Garden. The company that has already
- constructed a large-scale housing project in Johor Bahru and
- the Chinese influence on this project is fueling concerns in Malaysia.
After all it is a planned city in which all aspects of urban development and administration are
- organized by this private merger
specifically this means that the city will have private healthcare private education and even private security much of what is
Administered by government institutions in other cities will be privately organized in a main
Shareholder is a Chinese company which in turn raises concerns about a loss of sovereignty in Malaysia
In order to understand these concerns, let's consider this project in a larger context
We already explored how forest city is marketed in the context of the Malaysian Iskandar economic zone
But the project is also part of a different strategy
In
2013 the Chinese government launched a belt and road initiative under which the country is funding a number of infrastructure projects worldwide
The investments that China is making in other countries are strengthening trade between the nations involved
But in some countries there is a growing concern about the power that China is gaining through these projects in
Malaysia these divided opinions of our Chinese development projects are a key political issue
Malaysia's former Prime Minister Najib Razak has been open to cooperation with China and has signed a number of contracts
This includes the construction of a railway line by a Chinese company as well as two pipeline projects and forest city
During the 2018 general election his challenger and opposition leader mottier Mohammad
criticized these projects and warned of a Chinese debt trap
Mohammad won the election and during his tenure he changed course on many of these projects including for his city
He commented negatively on the project and he made clear that buying an apartment in the city does not
Automatically entitled buyers to a visa
the new political climate surrounding projects with Chinese
Participation also led to caution among prospective tenants and Forest City got into an imbalance
from the start the project was primarily advertised towards Chinese citizens and
critics of the project note that the apartments can't be afforded by much of the local Malaysian population
To put it bluntly critics feared that what was being built is a Chinese city within Malaysian territory
The project developer therefore tries to address these concerns
Local Malaysian companies in the region were preferred with awarded contracts
It was also announced that more affordable housing units would be offered and at the project will not only be tailored
Towards Chinese interest
There is the hope that foreign investment can enable mutual growth and increase ties between nations in a way that is beneficial
to both countries
But there is also concern that investments can lead to a dependency and result in a selling out of sovereignty
these considerations are what makes Forest City a controversial project
And Really, These are considerations that are necessary anytime. There is a large amount of foreign investment into a developing region