The Penang government will help facilitate discussions between the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) and Railway Assets Corporation (RAC) on extending the land lease for MSM Malaysia Holdings Bhd’s sugar refinery in Perai.
Chief minister Chow Kon Yeow said the land is owned by RAC, while the state only has authority to determine the leasehold period.
The lease, granted in 1964, expires in five years.
“Felda, which owns MSM Perai, must negotiate directly with RAC, which already has plans for a housing project in the area. The state will help facilitate the process because we also want that project to proceed,” Chow told reporters.
He said MSM also has a facility in Johor that could take over the refining operations, if required.
MSM, the country’s largest producer of refined sugar, is a subsidiary of FGV Holdings Bhd, Felda’s commercial arm.
Felda chairman Ahmad Shabery Cheek recently said the agency was seeking a 30-year lease extension on the land in Perai as it would allow MSM to make long-term plans for the sugar refinery, including a possible relocation of the facility.
The refinery, built in 1964, sits on 7ha of RAC land.
On Nov 11 last year, the transport ministry announced that 177 households in Kampung Manis, Perai, would receive free affordable homes to be built on land they have been squatting on for five decades.
About 300 families at Kampung Manis, whose ancestors worked at the MSM factory, have been living on RAC land for over 50 years despite several eviction attempts in the past that drew media attention.
RAC is an agency under the transport ministry.
