Sir Halford Mackinder, a former Oxford don, presented in 1904, when he was the director of the London School of Economics, at the Royal Geographical Society on Savile Row (better known for their suits) a paper on ‘The Geographical Pivot of History’. To oversimplify and even bastardise his ‘Heartland Theory’: he defined Afro-Eurasia as ‘The World Island’ and its heartland; he argued that whoever controlled the ‘heartland’, controlled the world.

For a more detailed point of view: https://tomdispatch.com/alfred-mccoy-washington-s-great-game-and-why-it-s-failing/

For whatever reasons; and the reasons are myriad, the world is pivoting to Asia. And for those of us in the family office business, the world seems to be coming to Singapore (see article: ‘The Singapore Sling and HK Family Offices‘). To crown it all off, the Singapore passport has become No.1 in the Henley Passport Index. However, Singapore & Hong Kong have become very expensive places to do business in; that is the reason we have moved our back office for Singapore & Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur. Not to India; nor the Philippines. Because in Kuala Lumpur many of our colleagues speak English; Cantonese; Hokkien; Mandarin; Bahasa Malaysia or Indonesia & Hindi.

And if Pulau 1 (see article: ‘Will Pulau 1 (Forest City, Johor) be the New Labuan?‘) becomes an international business & financial centre (IBFC), we will have an office in Forest City Finance Center Phase 1 (what they call Carnelian Tower, which is an impressive 45-storey building with service apartments (35th-45th floor) above offices (6th-30th floor) already built. Some people will look at the Finance Center and say it is half empty (some even say ‘Ghost City’); you ask a Mr Micawber, he will say half full. Office rent there is about MYR 3 per sq ft.

Not only will we have Fusang Exchange (David Chong and his family owns Fusang Exchange Ltd: the first fully regulated stock exchange in Asia providing end-to-end infrastructure to support Digital Securities; Fusang received IFN’s ‘Most Innovative Deal of the Year 2023‘) set up a presence there; we will have Baxian Bank Ltd (the first homegrown digital full bank in Malaysia, majority owned by David Chong) set up a presence there too.

The Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi aims to integrate Forest City into the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JSSEZ) to boost its economy and revival. He said having Forest City, which has Special Financial Zone (SFZ) status, be part of the JSSEZ would be a game changer
https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/04/1035360/johor-mb-wants-forest-city-integrated-jssez