JOHOR BARU: Interest in Iskandar Malaysia’s EduCity @Nusajaya near here remains strong and has prompted Iskandar Investment Bhd (IIB) to embark on a second similar project.

IIB president and chief executive officer Datuk Syed Mohamed Syed Ibrahim said the second project would be known as EduPark@Nusajaya.

He said the company was in the midst of completing the planning development of EduPark and its blue print would be unveiled towards the end of the year.

“We want to position EduCity and EduPark as the leading knowledge hub in the region,’’ Syed Mohamed said in a press conference on Wednesday.

Syed Mohamed with Chew at the signing ceremony for the setting up of Raffles American School in Iskandar Malaysia.

He said this at the signing of a sale and purchase agreement between Education@Iskandar Sdn Bhd (EISB), a wholly-owned subsidiary of IIB and Raffles Education Corp for the sale of 18.47ha land for RM56mil.

Signing on behalf of IIB were Syed Mohamed and chief operating officer Khairil Anwar Ahmad while Raffles Education was represented by executive director Stephen Chong and Raffles American School (RAS) director Doris Chew.

The land will be used to house Malaysia’s first state-of-the art RAS, which will focus on providing a world-class education facility in partnership with International School Services.

It offers an American curriculum leading to the Advanced Placement Programme for students to matriculate in colleges and universities in the United States and other English speaking universities around the world.

Work on the RAS will start in November and targeted for phase one completion for kindergarten through Grade 12, including full boarding capacity in 2014-2015.

The campus will boast 300,000 sq ft of built-up area complete with sports, recreational and boarding facilities to cater for a capacity of 2,000 students.

“The concept of EduPark will be different from EduCity as the former will see the partnership between industries and educational institutions to produce all rounders,’’ said Syed Mohamed.

EduCity, which covers 123.42ha, will have eight universities with one specialised faculty each while EduPark has an area spanning between 161.87ha and 202.34ha.

He said IIB was confident that EduPark would be as successful as the company had received many queries from interested parties to set their operations at the yet-to-be-launched project.

Similarly, he said the company would not be rushing to accept offers made by two universities in Beijing which are planning to set up their branch campuses in Iskandar Malaysia.

“We are very selective as we only want to offer the best in class faculties from reputable universities in the world,’’ said Syed Mohamed.

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