Kedah To Have State-owned Companies Take On REHDA's Role

JITRA, Oct 7 (Bernama) -- The Kedah state government is ready to direct its state-owned companies to take on the role of housing developers if the Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association of Malaysia (REHDA)'s Kedah/Perlis branch's members shift out of the state in protest of the state's decision to raise the housing quota for Bumiputeras to 50 per cent.

"Go wherever you want... the state-owned companies will do it if they (REHDA) fail to meet the state government's goal," said Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak when asked about the possibility that the association's members would move to other states if the Kedah state government persisted with its new housing policy.
Yesterday, REHDA Kedah/Perlis chairman, Ricque Liew Yin Chew, said its members would move to other states that were friendlier to businessmen and raised the prospect of taking the matter to court if the state government was hard-headed and uncompromising on the matter.

Ricque alleged that the new policy would adversely affect the housing industry in Kedah and was against the National Land Code and the Federal Constitution.

Azizan, who was met at Kolej Universiti Insaniah's Hari Raya do here stressed the state government would not budge from its stand based."If they want to take the matter to court, please do. This is a free country. We will abide by the court's ruling," he said, adding that the current 30 per cent quota was an estimation based on administrative angles.

Azizan said the state government was driven to implement the ruling for new projects as it received information that developers always said all housing units were sold or booked when Bumiputeras wanted to buy houses.

"The state's Bumiputera population is 1.5 million and non-Bumiputeras number 400,000. So it is not fair and far from the concept of racial harmony as the majority of the people are sidelined from development," he said.

BERNAMA