I know we get quite a lot of tourism business out of the Arabs every year. But I didn’t know that they were bringing in so much of money that even Arab investors are now interested to build a mini Arab in Malacca to attract even more Middle Eastern visitors!
And to spend something to the tune of US$300 million just to build something that emulates the Arab’s hometown, that’s a lot of money. I do wonder though whether the mini Arab town is going to attract more Arabs or Malaysians.
If I’m an Arabian on holiday in a foreign land, I would want to soak in the culture and experience of the country and not be in a place just like home.
On the contrary, I would imagine that it would be nice for the Malaysian folks to get to feel and experience an Arabian city without having to go all that far. So is this foreign investment to build an Arab city in Malacca meant to attract the Arabians or the local Malaysians?
Whoever the intended visitors, I think it’s a good first step to getting some foreign funds into the local economy and building something that could be of value and interest to the community in Malacca.
In the next few years when this piece of development in under way, hopefully we will see some benefits of job creation as well as consumer spending over the long term. If well managed, this is really good news for us as one way to help revive the poor market.
You can read this piece of interesting news here on Channel News Asia and The Star.
