SPEECH BY
YB DATO’ SERI MOHAMED NAZRI BIN ABDUL AZIZ
Minister of Tourism and Culture Malaysia
The Grand
Launch of Quill City Mall
Jalan Sultan
Ismail, Kuala Lumpur
18 January
2015 (Sunday), 4.30 pm
"A
very good afternoon to all of you, and Happy New Year! It is indeed an honour
to be here today for this auspicious event.
I would like to
express my sincerest appreciation to the management of Quill City Mall for inviting me to launch Quill City Mall, the prestigious new icon in the Golden Triangle
and “go-to destination” for shopping, lifestyle and entertainment in Kuala
Lumpur. This noble effort is indeed timely with our Malaysia Year of Festivals
2015, aptly themed Endless Celebrations.
It
is no doubt that shopping is a strong segment for the tourism industry of most
countries, including Malaysia. Our shopping sector still holds the second
biggest share of tourist expenditure, making it a lucrative sector for our
tourism industry.
Shopping
expenditure registered RM19.8 billion in 2013, which was an increase of 6
percent compared to 2012. It constituted 30.2 percent of total tourist
expenditure for last year.
I
am also pleased that our efforts in promoting shopping all these years have
been fruitful. Kuala Lumpur was ranked as the World’s 4th Best
Shopping City in 2012 and 2013 by global news network CNN, making it the best
shopping destination in Southeast Asia and among the top in Asia.
And
recently, Kuala Lumpur was lauded as one of the
New 7 Wonders Cities in the world by an international non-governmental
organisation, New Seven Wonders Foundation.
Nevertheless,
other Asian countries are also emerging as attractive shopping destinations in
order to attract more tourists. As such, Malaysia needs to race ahead with
greater speed to secure our leading position in the region.
To
ensure that the country’s shopping and tourism sectors continue to grow, the
Malaysian Government will further see to the effective implementation of the
Tourism National Key Economic Area, or Tourism NKEA, with 12 Entry Point
Projects (EPPs).
Three
out of the 12 EPPs involve the development of the country’s shopping scene. It
includes positioning Malaysia as a duty-free shopping destination, designate
the Bukit Bintang-KLCC area as a vibrant shopping precinct, and establish
premium shopping outlets.
I
am delighted to know that the private sector has shown greater commitment and
formed stronger collaborative network with the Government to drive the tourism
industry further, as we can see in today’s event.
Such
collaboration will help us to achieve the Tourism NKEA’s target of raking in
RM168 billion in receipts and 36 million international tourists by the year
2020, thus making Malaysia a preferred tourism destination in the region.
We are proud to be here today in one
of the world’s most robust economies in the Asian region, thanks to retail
developments, such as Quill City Mall which has joined in along with the many
other shopping malls to undertake initiatives of growth, increasing
productivity and expansion of their businesses as part of their strategies.
Since
its soft opening in October last year, I was informed that Quill City Mall has
emerged as a major shopping, dining, entertainment and leisure destination for
both locals and tourists alike.
Spread
out over 770,000 square feet of retail space, in the centre of Jalan Sultan
Ismail’s bustling streets and a direct link to the Medan Tuanku monorail
station, Quill City Mall definitely adds another dimension to the fun and
excitement of this vicinity, for those who live and work here.
On
that note, I would like to congratulate the developers – Quill Group – for the
successful opening of the iconic Quill City Mall.
Without
further ado, I now declare Quill City Mall, officially open!"
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