Metro

Thursday March 6, 2008

Kuala Langat also set to become an education hub

By EDWARD RAJENDRA

FISHERMEN’S jetties along the Langat River in Kuala Langat are where folks from Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya go to for a quick weekend getaway to enjoy fresh seafood and a breeze blowing in their faces.

Cooked in Chinese, Javanese or Indian style, the fresh seafood attracts foreign tourists and those from neighbouring districts.

Kuala Langat is famous for its agricultural produce, industries that recycle scrap metal, home stay programmes for tourists and for its National Space Centre in Kanchong Darat.

Kanchong Darat is popular with Kuala Lumpur chefs from five star hotels who buy vegetables and poultry from the farms as well as seafood from fishermen at the jetties.

Kuala Langat is located in the southwestern part of Selangor’s border with Negri Sembilan and to the west is the Straits of Malacca.

Bustling: Kuala Langat is a vibrant and growing township.
Among the major towns are Jugra, Banting, Kanchong Darat, Telok Datok and Morib.

The parliamentary constituency has 66,515 voters, made up of 36,751 Malays, 17,354 Chinese, 12,297 Indians and 113 others.

Putrajaya and the KL International Airport (KLIA), linked by the new highways, have become the catalyst for Kuala Langat’s development.

The Telok Panglima Garang Free Trade Zone, industries manufacturing electronic components and car parts have created many job opportunities for the locals.

Road networks and infrastructure in the district are good, making it viable for manufacturers to transport their finished goods on freight trucks to Kuala Lumpur, KLIA and Port Klang.

There are three state seats in the Kuala Langat parliamentary constituency – Sijangkang, Telok Datuk and Morib.

Newcomer Kuala Langat Umno division vice-chairman Sulaiman Mohd Karli is the Barisan Nasional flag-bearer for the Kuala Langat parliamentary constituency for this election, replacing Datuk Dr Mohd Shafie Salleh.

“Being a local and a teacher at three Muslim religious schools from 1979 to 1996 give me the edge as most of the youths eligible to vote are my former students. Support is there and I am confident because of my social work and close rapport with the people,” said Sulaiman

For Sijangkang, incumbent Datuk Abdul Fatah Iskandar (BN) who is facing Ahmad Yunus Hairi (PAS) is banking on his service track record as the assemblyman for three terms.

Telok Datuk state seat will see incumbent Datuk Ei Kim Hock from Barisan face Philip Tan Choon Swee of DAP.

The Morib constituency will see incumbent Hasiman Sidom of Barisan taking on Mohd Sallehuddin Hafiz of PAS.

Ei, who is Kuala Langat MCA chief, said the district would continue to boom and change its image with the Klang Valley Two development that would be completed by 2015.

Hasiman said Morib is being moulded into an education hub and that plans were afoot to set up a few educational institutions in Jugra.

“We have the Kuala Langat Community College and Industrial Training Institute. Other institutions being built are a matriculation college, a polytechnic and a Mara skills training institute,’’ he said.

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