Bintang Kencana plans to build medical specialist centre on waqf land

PORT DICKSON, July 5 (Bernama) -- Bintang Kencana Sdn Bhd is partnering with Avillion Hotels International Sdn Bhd (AHI) to open a medical specialist centre complete with a hotel and a 32-unit shop lot on waqf land in Johor Bahru, Johor.

Bintang Kencana Chief Executive Officer Datuk Ahmad Raziff Abu Bakar said the project, the first of its kind in Malaysia, will have a Gross Development Value of RM600 million with construction expected to start in February next year.

"Currently we are waiting for the approval from the Health Ministry on the hospital and we expect to get it by the end of this month.

"This medical specialist centre will be built on 2.1893 hectares of waqf land in Bandar Baru Uda in Johor Bahru owned by Majlis Agama Islam Johor (MAIJ)," he told Bernama after the signing of the Hotel Management Agreement (HMA) with AHI, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Avillion Bhd, here today.

The HMA was signed by Ahmad Raziff on behalf of Bintang Kencana while Avillion Acting Group Chief Executive Officer Amirul Baharom signed on behalf of AHI, and witnessed by Avillion Chairman Tan Sri Dr Samsudin Hitam.

Ahmad Raziff said since it will be built on waqf land, the private hospital would also benefit asnaf (eligible zakat recipients) as its wholly-owned subsidiary, Kencana Healthcare Sdn Bhd, would provide group insurance for the 3,500 asnaf under MAIJ for a period of 10 years.

"When this project is complete, we hope it can be a good business model whereby waqf land is developed and we can make a profit from it, and we also hope this project would be part of Johor's development agenda," he said.

Expected to be completed by 2020, the hotel will be managed by AHI while the hospital, which is expected to start operations in 2022, will be managed by the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre.

Meanwhile, Amirul said its hotel for this project will carry the new brand under the group, namely AVI by Avillion, with its main focus on seminars and business meetings leveraging on its high-speed WiFi and city centre location.

"Currently we are in talks with several partners to build and manage the hotel under the AVI by Avillion brand," he said, adding that hotels under Avillion were previously more on the resort concept.

-- BERNAMA