2007 has been an eventful year for MRCB Group, with our active participation in the economic development of Northern, Central, Eastern and Southern peninsular Malaysia.

The most significant of these developments was our success in securing the Penang Sentral development project, namely the development of an integrated transportation hub for the northern region – Penang Sentral, providing us with the opportunity to contribute to the development of the Northern Corridor Economic Development (NCER).

This success in Penang will provide us with new opportunities in our business thrust and participation in the northern region, especially in the development of Penang.

We also saw a year of turnaround for our Seri Iskandar operations and the team has made some concrete progress towards achieving a new direction for us in Perak Darul Ridzuan.

Not to be outdone, we have also been busy at KL Sentral pulling together some outstanding deals that will see us building some five million sq ft of new retail, residential, leisure and commercial space beginning this year.  That is the equivalent of the KLCC twin towers and will make us the largest developers of urban space in Malaysia.

The developments will include a new luxury 5-star hotel, high-end luxury condominiums, a new campus style boutique office and our long-awaited Lot G shopping mall. 

Our building services activities have also evolved to a more comprehensive range of building and management services. We have been awarded with SIRIM international standards of excellence for our services and management of Stesen Sentral Kuala Lumpur.

These successes, we owe it to the hard work and dedication of our teams.

MRCB has also experienced success in southern peninsular Malaysia as we have secured the Eastern Dispersal Link (EDL), toll concession project in Johore, which spells well in our gradual involvement in the southern region.

In eastern peninsular Malaysia, particularly the state of Pahang, MRCB is leading the way in the environmental businesses. Our successes in the beach and river rehabilitation project in Teluk Tekek, Pulau Tioman and Kuala Pahang mark an increasing importance in our focus in this new environmental activity.

I personally believe that climate change and environmental protection will be the core issues facing all of us in the future and it is only appropriate that MRCB be involved in the forefront to assist the Government in these issues.

Our involvement in Sabah and Sarawak is basically in the area of engineering and construction activities, especially in the development, construction and maintenance of substations and power transmission.

The successful delivery of the Sabah East-West Grid, and the securing of the power transmission project in Bakun, Sarawak, plus our past experiences in peninsular Malaysia has indeed bear testament to MRCB as the nation’s biggest developer of transmission networks. This is also reflected in our success in winning key projects in 2007, including the Salak South job.

At this level of business activities, I look forward to an even more eventful 2008. The successes that we have sow in 2007 are a precursor to our continued growth and success beyond 2008.

All these are made possible by our continuous effort in improving ourselves, and constantly challenging ourselves to be more result-oriented as well as our commitment for excellence in areas we are involved in.

Thank you.