JOHOR BARU: Country Garden Pacificview Sdn Bhd (CGPV), the developer of the multi-billion ringgit Forest City project in Gelang Patah, says it has complied with all laws and regulations with the necessary approvals to sell to foreign property buyers.

The company in a statement on Monday (Aug 27) clarified that pursuant to Section 433B of the National Land Code, a foreign citizen or a foreign company may acquire land in Malaysia subject to the prior approval of the state authority.

"We do not issue any permanent residency (PR) to foreign buyers of Forest City.

"We are currently in touch with the Prime Minister's Office for clarification, as we believe Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's comments may have been taken out of context in certain media reports,'' it said.

He said the comments did not correspond with the outcome of the meeting between Dr Mahathir and founder and chairman of Country Garden Holdings Yeung Kwok Keung.

The statement said Dr Mahathir and Yeung had a 40-minute closed-door meeting on Aug 16, prior to his visit to Beijing.

"During the meeting, Dr Mahathir reiterated he welcomes foreign investments which could create job opportunities, promote technology transfer and innovations that could benefit Malaysia's economic growth and job creation,'' said the statement.

Reuters reported Monday (Aug 27) quoting Dr Mahathir that Malaysia will not allow foreigners to buy residential units in the US$100bil (RM410bil) Forest City project in Johor.

"One thing is certain, that city that is going to be built cannot be sold to foreigners," Dr Mahathir told a news conference here.

"We are not going to give visas for people to come and live here.

"Our objection is because it was built for foreigners, not built for Malaysians. Most Malaysians are unable to buy those flats," he added.

Country Garden has developed just a fraction of the planned reclamation of 20 sq km, where Chinese nationals accounted for about 70% of apartment buyers last year.