Five Million To Visit Mitsui Outlet Park By End-2015

SEPANG (Selangor, Malaysia), May 30 (Bernama) -- The Mitsui Outlet Park (MOP) KLIA Sepang is targeting five million to visit the premises here, by year-end, said Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) - Mitsui Fudoson's Deputy Managing Director TJ Cheah. He said the premises, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia and which opened to the public today, would also have 250 shops by year-end under the first phase development. Cheah noted that the number of shops would be expanded to 190 by 2018 and an additional 60 by 2021, pushing the total number of tenants to 250. "Upon completion of phase three by 2021, Mitsui Outlet Park KLIA has the potential of being the largest factory outlet shopping mall in the region," he told reporters after the media familiarisation tour Saturday. According to Cheah, the project investment was RM335 million for the three phases of development, and has a projected contribution to the Gross Domestic Product, as well as Gross National Income (GNI), of RM235 million and RM220 million respectively by 2020. Besides that, MOP KLIA is projected to provide 2,577 employment opportunities in five years time. The venture has been granted Entry Point Project status under the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), National Key Economic Area (NKEA) for tourism. Prime Minister Najib Razak when launching the Government Transformation Programme and ETP reports last month noted that, to continue the robust tourism sector under NKEA for tourism, the government had approved another luxury retail outlet which would sell premium products. Najib said that MOP KLIA would repeat the success achieved by the Johor Premium Outlet which has been in operation for almost four years now. The MOP KLIA is open daily to the public from 10 am to 10 pm. -- BERNAMA