2017年10月9日 The mystery behind Kuantan's 'Great Wall of China'
For the local folk, the dull grey wall topped with steel hooks, with the exception of certain sections which are brick red for aesthetic purposes, has come to be referred to as Kuantan's "Great Wall of China".The wall is not exceptional, but its apparent purpose of keeping those inside separate from the outside world has fuelled speculations among the local community.

2017年10月10日 Malaysian contractors and China chefs juggle Kuantan's industrial dawn
More than four years later, the structures of the first phase of the MCKIP are now visible and the wall surrounding the 1,219-acre development, which locals refer to as Kuantan's "Great Wall of China", is now part of the landscape.But for some, the promise of economic prosperity and thousands of new jobs have yet to be felt. The initial excitement and anticipation have been replaced with mixed feelings.

2017年10月11日 Kuantan rides China wave on land and sea, but at what cost?

2017年10月17日 MCKIP: 'Wall' limited to steel plant, factories won't pollute
Officially launched on Feb 5, 2013, MCKIP is 49 percent owned by Guangxi Beibu Gulf International Port Group Co Ltd, a China company owned by the Guangxi Autonomous Region government, and 51 percent owned by Kuantan Pahang Holding Sdn Bhd, comprising IJM Land Bhd, Sime Darby Property Bhd and the Pahang government.According to IJM Corporation Berhad chief executive officer and managing director Soam Heng Choon (photo, right), the perimeter wall does not cover the entire MCKIP site but is only limited to the Alliance Steel (M) Sdn Bhd complex.

2017年10月21日 Mahathir visits Kuantan's 'Great Wall of China'
Standing outside MCKIP, Dr M snipes Najib over land sales to China
Pakatan Harapan and Bersatu chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his entourage made a stop outside the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP) showroom in a symbolic protest against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's investment decisions.Standing along a busy highway overseeing the MCKIP showroom, Mahathir complained that the building's name was only in English and Chinese. The national language, Bahasa Malaysia, was glaringly absent from its signboard...

2018年5月9日 马来西亚第14届大选，马哈迪带领的希望联盟获胜，之后8月官访中国。

2018年8月24日 要拆关丹“万里长城”．敦马：中国没说不
据了解，马中产业园周围修建了一道9公里长的围墙，而被当地人称之为“关丹的万里长城”。马哈迪指出，马中产业园用长长的围墙把自己封闭起来的做法，并不符合大马的法律，因此要求拆除围墙。“我向中国政府解释，正如我们在中国时会尽可能遵循他们的法律一样，我们也期待中国人在大马时能遵守我们的法律，而他们并没有说‘不’。”
询及所谓“拆除围墙”是比喻还是字面实意时，马哈迪回答：“都是”。

2018年8月28日 社评：中企在马来西亚的围墙不是中国长城
各家工厂设围墙，这在马来西亚其他产业园区也是惯常做法，在全世界也属流行管理模式。一些马来西亚人显然错把钢铁厂的围墙当成了产业园的围墙，以讹传讹，错误的信息甚至传给了总理。马哈蒂尔总理主张奉行扩大对华友好合作的政策，他在不久前访华期间还呼吁中国公司前往马来西亚投资，增加对马技术输出。但是他对一些具体中资项目的表态又引起困惑，像这一次，他把围绕一堵围墙的争议上升到国家主权的层面，很令人诧异。

2018年9月1日 Alliance Steel insists Kuantan's 'great wall' must stay up
The project's deputy commander, Steve Hu, said there was no hidden motive in building the wall, seen by locals as a replica of the Great Wall of China, as it should be regarded as a fence erected to protect a residential home."We really hope it is not demolished because it is important in launching our 24-hour operation every day.“It is to protect the property in the factory equipped with machines that run continuously, and which are at times, operated without human supervision," he told reporters after attending the National Day Celebration at the plant yesterday.

2018年9月5日 Alliance Steel agrees to lower height of the 'Great Wall'
Dr Ong said the move showed Alliance Steel's sincerity in cooperating with the authorities, although the company did have the permission to build a wall."The wall is not to be demolished, but lowered according to the standards of MPK," he said.Dr Ong said the current height of the wall was about 3m but the new plan would have the concrete part lowered to 1.8m of concrete wall and the rest topped with transparent fencing.

2018年9月5日 王建民访华之后的Facebook公告
Thoughts on the MCKIP visit on the 5 September 2018
Whenever the Kuantan Industrial Park is mentioned in popular conversation, the discussion inevitably gets steered towards the so-called “Great Wall of China” that surrounds the massive Alliance Steel complex. Earlier today, I visited the Malaysia China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP) and discovered that the masterplan for this area is much more than just the ‘great wall’. If done well, the investments in this industrial park have the potential to transform the whole of Kuantan into a thriving city of industry.To recap, the MCKIP is a joint venture between a Malaysian consortium (51%) led by IJM and a Chinese consortium led by Guangxi Beibu, a state owned logistics company. There is a sister park called the China Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park (CMQIP) which is located in the autonomous region of Guangxi in China. Most Malaysians are probably not aware of the fact that Guangxi has been designated by the Chinese government as the gateway to ASEAN. Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, is the host city for the annual China-Asean Expo (CAEPXPO), which is taking place from the 12th to the 15th of September.Since I will be visiting the CMQIP next week as part of my visit to Guangxi, I thought it would be necessary for me to visit its sister park, MCKIP, in Kuantan. Indeed, I need to be aware of the issues and challenges faced by both parks as I am one of the co-chairs of the Joint Cooperation Council (JCC) together with the Menteri Besar of Pahang and the Vice Minister of Commerce, China.
MCKIP covers more than 3500 acres and is divided into 3 phases. The infrastructure for Phase 1 has been completed and Alliance Steel occupies 710 acres of our 1200 acres. The land clearing for Phase 2 is almost completed and work on Phase 3 will be started soon.Committed FDIs of over RM11 billion are in the approval process. More potential investments will come as MCKIP continues to grow and gain a credible reputation in China.It is not possible to talk about MCKIP without linking it with the Kuantan Port. The Kuantan Port Consortium (KPC) is a 60%-40% joint venture between IJM and Guangxi Beibu, the same drivers behind MCKIP. The rationale is simple – if more industries set up in MCKIP, this will inevitably lead to more traffic coming to and leaving from the Kuantan Port. Currently, Kuantan Port handles less than 150,000 TEUs (container units) compared to more than 9 million TEUs for Westport in Port Klang. With a proper strategy to attract the right investors to MCKIP as well as to Kuantan Port, the volume can easily exceed 1 million TEUs. The development of a new deep water terminal in the Kuantan Port has allowed investors such as Alliance Steel to import its raw materials in the form of iron ore and coal (Phase 1A and Phase 1B).The government footed the bill to build a breakwater which allowed dredging to take place in the new expansion of the port. The dredging of the deepwater port was undertaken by the Kuantan Port Consortium. The result is a new 1km berth cover 400m for Phase 1A and another 600m for Phase 1B.
Now, onto the elephant in the room which is the Alliance Steel plant.
A few facts on this project:
1) This company is a joint venture between Guangxi Beibu, a state-owned enterprise, and Guangxi Shenglong Metallurgical Co Ltd
2) Thus far, this company has invested approximately US$1.4 billion in its complex in MCKIP
3) The infamous wall reaches a maximum height of 3m but is closer to 2m in most parts. The wall only covers the compound of Alliance Steel and NOT the entire MCKIP
The wall was built as a means to protect the assets in the compound, which is huge! The compound measures 4.2km long and almost 1km wide in some parts. When Tun Dr. Mahathir visited the site of the plant in November 2017, the construction work had just started. With just the wall surrounding the compound, which is elevated when viewed from certain vantage points around the site, it is understandable why Tun Dr. Mahathir would have had some concerns over what was being built and what was going on within the compound. Now that the various sections within the plant are already built, the size of the wall is relatively low when compared to the massive buildings within the compound.
It is probably safe to say that there is no steel plant like this in the whole of Malaysia be it in terms of capacity (3.5 million tonnes capacity per year) or in terms of the level of automation (state of the art blast furnace with almost fully automated lines of production) or in terms of efficiency (zero wastewater target).
After the initial construction period where the workers were primarily from China, Alliance Steel is now employing 2500 Malaysian workers, all of whom are given free meals and lodging while they are working at the plant. A significant proportion of the construction work were sub-contracted to Kuantan based contractors to a tune of over RM1 billion in projects. A local supermarket chain, the Tunas Manja Group (TMG), has a store within the plant, which it does not pay rent for.
Shortly after the 14th general elections, politicians who were previously not given access to the plant, including ADUN for Teruntum, Sim Chon Siang and Member of Parliament for Kuantan, Fuziah Salleh, were invited and given a tour of the facilities. I was joined by YB Fuziah and YB Sim during my visit today and YB Saifuddin Abdullah will also be given a tour of the facility and a full briefing by MCKIP tomorrow (6th of September 2018).
Some outstanding issues remain pertaining to Alliance Steel.
Because of the speed of construction (within 1 year), some of the calibration for its machinery have not been approved by the Department of Occupation Safety and Health (DOSH). Many of its manuals have to be translated from Chinese to English. The relevant agencies will continue to monitor this as the plant prepares for a ramp up to full operations.
Alliance Steel also has to submit regular reports to agencies such as the ECERDC and MIDA on its production quantities and the percentage of each product which it exports. This is to ensure that the local steel market is not flooded with the excess capacity of Alliance Steel which may have detrimental impact on the long term viability of some of our local steel players.
With regards to the infamous wall, during Alliance Steel agreed to send in a proposal to the Majlis Perbandaran Kuantan (MPK) to lower the concrete portion of the wall to 1.8m and build the rest of the wall up to a height of 2.75m using regular fencing.
One of the main shortcomings of Alliance Steel is that it does not yet know how to communicate its objectives and aspirations to the larger Malaysian public. It very much wants to live up to its motto of “In Malaysia, for Malaysia” but is currently not PR savvy enough to do this effectively.
Recently, it celebrated Merdeka day with its workers and also the local residents and this event attracted close to 1000 people.
I found the top management of Alliance Steel to be very willing to engage with the new government in order to solve some of the issues which were raised before and during my visit today.
I will continue to work with the relevant stakeholders – MCKIP, ECERDC, Alliance Steel, Kuantan Port Consortium, MIDA, Majlis Perbandaran Kuanta (MPK) and the Pahang state governments in order to find long term solutions to the issues faced by MCKIP and its tenants (including Alliance Steel) so that the vision of building a dynamic Kuantan Port City comprising of MCKIP and KPC can be realised to the benefit of the people of Kuantan, Pahang and the entire nation. I will use the platform of the Joint Council for Cooperation (JCC) to raise some of the more challenging issues to my counterpart from China as well as the Menteri Besar of Pahang.
Dr. Ong Kian Ming
Deputy Minister MITI
5 September 2018