Magnum d'Or Resources, Inc. (fka MDOR)

[turnthetides]

SRI=Green Rubber=Magnum. This is unbelievable what I am finding. I hope some of you all are reading this too.

Dream Of A Malaysian-Singaporean Regional Metropolis
Shu-Ching Jean Chen, 09.12.07, 2:52 AM ET
http://www.forbes.com/emergingmarkets/2007/09/12/malaysia-singapore-forbes-markets-emerge-cx_jc_0912markets1.html

SINGAPORE -

As a sign of how far Malaysia has come out of its self-imposed isolation following the regional financial crisis a decade ago, one need look no farther than the short trip the country’s prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, made Wednesday to his longtime estranged neighbor, Singapore, where he hobnobbed on the resort island of Sentosa with local politicians and international businessmen, seeking to sell them on an ambitious development plan.

In partnership with Singapore, Badawi wants to create a regional hub of the same caliber as the increasingly integrated region in China between the financial gateway of Hong Kong and the tech center of Shenzhen.

His vision hinges on the development of a new economic zone in Malaysia next to Singapore called the Iskandar Development Region, or IDR, that would specialize in property services such as Islamic REITs, financial services, logistics, health care and creative industries. Through IDR, Badawi intends to vault Malaysia from a middling manufacturing-based economy into the ranks of advanced services providers.

“The setting up of multinational businesses in the IDR and its proximity to Singapore suggests an exciting development: namely, the rise of a new regional metropolis in Asia,” he said Wednesday at the Forbes Global CEO Conference.

“If Hong Kong and Shenzhen symbolize the gateway into north Asia, Singapore and IDR represent the cosmopolitan access point to ASEAN as well as the crossroad between India and China,” he said.

To achieve his vision, he is proposing a raft of market-opening measures heretofore unthinkable in Malaysia. First to go would be some of the country’s notorious red tape, which includes as many as 64 separate approvals from government agencies each year for operating a hotel, and more than six month’s wait for approval for a land transfer. A one-stop licensing center is being set up.

In his annual budget presentation, Badawi proposed to eliminate double taxation and allow foreign investors to own majority stakes in industries such as property and fund management. He also is seeking to simplify business visa applications, sponsor on-the-job training for skilled workers and enhance its offshore tax haven in Labuan.

The IRD initiative received a boost Aug. 31 from a group of companies from the Middle East, including Aldar Properties PJSC of the United Arab Emirates, which inked a deal for a $1.2 billion investment in the zone, the single largest-ever foreign investment in Malaysia.

At the Forbes conference, Badawi also presented an economic blueprint for foreign investment to help address the country’s widening urban-rural divide, which is exacerbated by an inadequate transportation infrastructure.

He said his government is planning to make the north the hub for food industries and electronics, and the east a center of petrochemicals and tourism, complementary to the IDR zone in the south as the focal point for services industries. Farther afield, he would like relatively undeveloped Sabah and Sarawak to be preserved for eco-tourism.

Among the foreign investors that have responded to the more open investment environment are Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson. The movie stars have taken stakes in Green Rubber Global, which claims to have developed the first commercially viable and waste-free method to recycle tires. Forbes magazine publisher Steve Forbes’ family also has a stake in the company.

It is aiming for an IPO in London's junior Alternative Investment Market.