RTS Link to reshape Johor Baru's commercial landscape, calls mount for coordinated action

KUALA LUMPUR: The upcoming Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link is poised to reshape Johor Baru's commercial landscape, with policymakers and industry leaders calling for urgent, coordinated action to ensure the city is ready to capture its full economic potential.

Speaking at the Cerebrum Insights Workshop: RTS 2026 & Johor CBD Opportunities, Johor Corp (JCorp) president and chief executive Datuk Syed Mohamed Syed Ibrahim described the RTS as a "once-in-a-generation commercial catalyst" that will inject sustained footfall into the city.

Syed Mohamed challenged the stakeholders to ensure the city is prepared.

"Cities do not become great by accident. They become commercially great when capital trusts policy, when policy enables capital, and when both choose execution over rhetoric.

"The RTS will bring movement; it is our collective responsibility to ensure that movement brings value and that Ibrahim International Business District evolves into a city centre worthy of Johor's commercial ambitions," he said during his opening remarks.

The Cerebrum Insights Workshop brought together cross-sector decision-makers from Federal Malaysia, Johor and Singapore to focus on translating the RTS Link into measurable economic, spatial and policy outcomes for Johor Baru's central business district (CBD).

Central to the discussion was ensuring the city is ready to support liveability and economic performance.

Syed Mohamed emphasised that conversion, the process of turning movement into commerce, does not occur automatically but must be engineered through coordinated decisions.

Additionally, he stressed that neither the government nor the private sector has the capacity to create a competitive CBD on their own.

"This engineering involves strategic choices regarding land use, walkability, and infrastructure. To successfully develop the area, both sectors must work together in a "disciplined partnership", he said.

Positioned as part of Johor's next phase of growth under the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ), the workshop focused on evolving the CBD into a high-performance urban core.

Participants examined three core domains, including mobility integration, urban planning readiness, and commercial activation, identifying real-world constraints such as infrastructure bottlenecks and last-mile connectivity gaps.

The programme featured an industry presentation followed by multi-stakeholder breakout sessions. Outputs will be consolidated into an action-orientated report to be submitted by JCorp to the Menteri Besar Johor to support execution and policy refinement.