'The first phase of the blueprint involves efforts to win the trust of the people and foreign investors,' he said when opening the Nusajaya police district headquarters in Skudai within the IDR yesterday.

The IDR, a 2,217 sq km zone that stretches northwards from the Singapore-Johor border, is being touted as Malaysia's new growth area.

Malaysia has previously said it plans to beef up police presence in the IDR with three new district police headquarters as well as 11 new police stations.

The government is also installing closed-circuit television cameras in the streets and deploying more patrol cars and 2,000 more policemen in Johor.

The next phase of the blueprint, said Tan Sri Musa, is hardware and infrastructure development.

The third phase would focus on software development and the deployment of officers to stations in the Nusajaya district, which will be the new administrative centre for Johor state.

Referring to security concerns in Johor, the police chief said there was a need to address misperceptions.

He said statistics showed the crime rate in Johor was on a downward trend. No figures were given.

BERNAMA