DAP: Johor Bank should focus on rented housing

KLUANG: The Sultan of Johor’s proposed Bank of Johor should minimise its exposure to real estate and property loans, Johor DAP said today.
“As real estate and property sector is not a productive sector, the exposure of Bank of Johor to the sector should be minimized,” said Johor DAP chairman Liew Chin Tong and Johor DAP secretary Gan Peck Cheng in a joint statement welcoming the proposal.
They said there had been excessive lending by major commercial banks for real estate and property, which they called an unproductive sector.
Such loans may be a form of “predatory lending” to people with lower income, they said, and argued that the federal and state governments should focus on rent and rent-to-buy housing schemes to meet the housing needs of low and middle income families.
Lim and Gan said that the new bank’s primary focus should be on helping small and medium industries and agriculture sectors to transform, and to move Johor’s various sectors away from dependence on unskilled foreign labour.
“The primary objective of the Bank of Johor should be a commitment to ensure that Johor achieves a high wage, high skill and technology and high productivity virtuous cycle,” they said.
“There is an urgent need to help industries and agriculture sectors to move up the ladder and compete at a different level in order to provide high wage jobs for Johoreans in the hope that Johoreans need not work in other countries say in a generation’s time.”
The SME Bank and Agro Bank had not sufficiently provided the necessary funding to small and medium industries and agriculture, they said.
The proposed Bank of Johor should help transform the state for agriculture and SME-run industries to thrive.


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