Kuala Lumpur, 17 September 2009 - Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation Sdn Bhd (BiotechCorp) and UEM Land Holdings Berhad (ULHB) today signed a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) to develop a biotechnology ecosystem known as Bio-XCell at the Southern Industrial & Logistics Clusters (SiLC) in Nusajaya. This public-private partnership will leverage on the strengths of both BiotechCorp and ULHB to market and position Bio-XCell as a premier biotechnology park in Malaysia and the ASEAN region.

Under the JVA, the JVCo will make an initial investment in 72.5 acres of land with an estimated development cost of RM550 million.

Bio-XCell will comprise the development of a supportive biotechnology ecosystem around targeted strategic anchor tenants to undertake operations geared towards expediting the growth of the industry. It will offer a state-of-the-art biotechnology ecosystem benchmarking against the world’s leading science parks offering both hard and soft infrastructure. Iskandar Malaysia in Johor was identified given the good linkage with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, excellent hard infrastructure (and planned infrastructure) and the ability to leverage on Singapore’s biotechnology cluster.

“We are very pleased to partner BioTechCorp in this venture as BioTechCorp has the core competencies to create a conducive biotechnology ecosystem for the acceleration of the biotechnology industry in Malaysia,” said Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of UEM Land Holdings Berhad.

“We are moving beyond building infrastructure. Our strategy is to build the right content, not only at SiLC but in the total Nusajaya development. A biotechnology component such as Bio-XCell is ideal for the development of SiLC and we will continue to seek other such content partners for the development of SiLC to build its value”, he added.

Meanwhile, Dato’ Iskandar Mizal Mahmood, Chief Executive Officer of BiotechCorp said, “To date, BioTechCorp has identified and commenced engagements with several targeted strategic international partners and collaborators to anchor Bio-XCell. With the encouraging responses thus far, we foresee many more interests from strategic Foreign Direct Investments and Domestic Direct Investments anchor or locate their operations in Bio-XCell”.

The main objective for Bio-XCell is to create a dedicated biotechnology park with custom-built facilities catering to commercial development, R&D as well as production of industrial and pharmaceutical biotechnology products. Bio-XCell will leverage on Malaysia’s distinctive edge with abundance of oil palm biomass, proximity to source of raw materials and Malaysia’s position as one of the world’s largest biodiversity. Additionally, the pharmaceutical and healthcare biotechnology will benefit from the maturity and expansion of the biotechnology clusters in Singapore.

“Since our inception in 2005, we have been aggressively building our capacity to support the growth of the biotechnology industry in Malaysia. Now as we are moving towards commercialization stage, we are confident that Malaysia, with the untapped abundance of tropical micro-organism can lead the growth of the industrial biotechnology especially in the areas of enzyme and green technologies. Studies have also shown oil palm EFB (empty fruit bunch) capable of producing one of the highest ratio of cellulosic ethanol from biomass”, added Dato’ Iskandar.

Dedicated facilities will also be made available to facilitate incubators for researchers and scientists in shared facilities.

From Nusajaya, biotech firms and businesses can take advantage of the proximity to Singapore – 10km away via Second Link. Firms can tap in the pool of trained and skilled human resources produced from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and other institutions of higher learning and research centres.

The location of Bio-XCell at SiLC is ideal as it is accessible via two airports, five seaports, one railway and a network of freeways and communication facilities, making research sharing and development more conducive, at the same time reducing operational costs while maximizing productivity.

Nusajaya, with its eight catalyst developments, is positioned as the “World in One City” and poised to become a regional city. This world-class regional city that enhances and enriches the quality of life for Nusajaya’s residents who live, work and play here is rapidly taking shape and will come alive in 2012.