KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 5): Country Garden Pacificview Sdn Bhd (CGP), the developer of Forest City in Johor, today clarified its discussions with the Department of Environment (DoE) did not mean that the size of the controversial property development project is being limited or compromised.
Earlier today, TheMalaysianInsider, quoting sources, reported the DoE had decided to limit the development of Forest City project to less than 1,000 acres.
The development of Forest City project involves over 1,600 acres of land reclamation, adjacent to Singapore sea border and Malaysia’s Port of Tanjung Pelepas.
“In the most recent discussions, in late December 2014, DoE and Country Garden Pacificview discussed assessment directives and compliance to high standards. These discussions do not mean that the project size is to be limited or compromised in any way,” CGP’s executive director Datuk Md. Othman said via a press statement today, in response to the news report.
Md. Othman also reiterated CGP had ceased all construction at development site, since June 16 last year (2014).
“Any modification or change to the landmass is not due to construction, but due to natural displacement,” he said, refuting the report which said reclamation work continued, despite claims by the developers that they had voluntarily stopped on June 15, 2014.
The voluntarily cessation of construction works by CGP, came after DoE requested an environmental impact assessment from them, it said.
Md Othman also mentioned the company will host an online platform to openly receive queries for 48 hours this Friday (Jan 9), and committed that “no question or post will be deleted”.
The company requested the public to forward any questions on the project to [email protected] or to [email protected], and the responses will be published on www.cgpvforestcity.wordpress.com
CGP is a joint-venture unit between Esplanade Danga 88 Sdn Bhd, and Country Gardens Holdings Co Ltd — China’s seventh-largest property developer with a market capitalisation of HK$68.79 billion.