Playing the long game at Forest City

The master developer of Forest City is a joint venture between China-headquartered developer Country Garden Holdings Co and Esplanade Danga 88.

It was a scorching afternoon when Country Garden Pacificview (CGPV) executive director and chief of regional industrial business development Kevin Li and regional vice-president Syarul Izam Sarifudin arrived at The Edge’s office in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. The pair had flown in from Johor Bahru to give an update on Forest City, a high-profile project in Johor that has dealt with some hot issues since its inception.

“What we achieved \[since 2015\] up to 2025 was merely concentrating more on our operational stability, resource integration and preparing for our next phase of growth,” says Syarul. “In the early years, we were primarily viewed as a residential real estate developer. But we are now embarking into a new sector — managing townships and driving actual economic nodes of financial and industrial development in southern Johor.”