KUALA LUMPUR – Redevelopment of the Shah Alam Stadium is expected to generate economic activity with new business and job opportunities for people, those in contractors’ and trade groups say.
The new stadium complex, which will also have business premises, will widen opportunities for entrepreneurs and the state government to generate more revenue, said the former president of the Malay Contractors’ Association of Malaysia (PKMM), Datuk Seri Mohamed Fadzill Hassan.
“The new stadium complex is to have pavilions and stalls, and this will help more Malays do business and increase (the number of) traders and food-and-beverage operators among the Bumiputera,” he told Scoop.
“The project can help create businesses for people to run and be an economic resource for the government and the state government. Everyone can earn a living together.”
Federation of Malaysian Hawkers and Traders Associations president, Datuk Seri Rosli Sulaiman, said he understood that the stadium’s redevelopment would also involve a commercial centre.
This would provide added value, especially in terms of employment opportunities for the people of Selangor, he said.
With the potential for development of other facilities, the new stadium complex can also become a visitor attraction, he added.
“With the commercial centre, there will certainly be business opportunities for local traders and hawkers, and the area can be made into an attraction for visitors all the time, not just when there are football matches or stadium events.
“A commercial centre will bring focus to the project as many premises can be opened, and this holds potential for more job opportunities,” Rosli told Scoop.
With such benefits in store, PKMM’s Fadzill said the project’s detractors should not use the issue to “create issues”.
“There are parties who try to take advantage by creating issues, such as the Malaysian Green Party (PHM), for the sake of being popular,” Fadzill said, citing the party, which has frequently criticised the project.
PHM’s pro tem secretary Abdul Razak Ismail was recently ticked off by Selangor executive councillor Izham Hashim for “being disruptive” over the project with claims to put it in a bad light.
Izham, who is state infrastructure, public amenities and agriculture modernisation executive councillor, said Razak’s claims about the company undertaking the stadium’s redevelopment were unfounded as everything was above board.
The project developer, Lembaran Prospek Sdn Bhd, is a wholly owned company of MRCB Land Sdn Bhd with a paid-up capital of RM5 million, checks with the Companies Commission show. The majority owner of MRCB is the Employees’ Provident Fund.
Fadzill, meanwhile, said there was nothing unusual for a large company or conglomerate to have a subsidiary carry out a project.
“The practice of having a subsidiary company run a project is normal; the parent company is still monitoring so there is no issue,” he said.
Class F Malaysian Bumiputera Contractors’ Association president Tukiman Radion also has the same opinion, noting the common practice for a subsidiary company to carry out a certain project.
“Such a major project will of course be awarded to a parent company that is credible, and the parent company will then authorise a subsidiary to carry it out,” he said.
Demolition works on the Shah Alam Stadium’s redevelopment are slated to begin in May or June, according to Saipolyazan M. Yusop, the chief executive of Menteri Besar Selangor Inc. – April 14, 2024