SamaWorld
The SamaWorld Theme Park and Destination Resort is an abandoned theme park development in Genting Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia. Planning began in the 1980s and construction started in the 1990s but the project was never completed.
Location
The abandoned SamaWorld site is located on a mountain slope between the Genting Highlands Resort and the Ion Delemen high-rise complex. It lies beneath the road leading to Amber Court and Ion Delemen. The road is now called Jalan Ion Delemen.History
With Asia's economic boom in the 1980s income levels increased and demand for leisure activity was raising. This led to the construction of many amusement parks in Asia. Two Malaysian entrepreneurs, Lim Tuck Fatt and Lim Tuck Sing proposed the SamaWorld theme park for the Genting Highlands. The second son of the Sultan of Selangor Tengku Sulaiman Shah was chairman of SamaWorld Sdn Bhd and Lim Tuck Fatt was managing director. SamaWorld was a subsidiary of SamaWorld Asia Sdn Bhd. 70% of the Sama World Asia consortium was held by the Lim Brothers together with Tengku Sulaiman Shah and the remaining 30% were held by the Malaysian Government. Later Kuala Lumpur International Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of the Police Cooperative Limited|Police Cooperative], invested in SamaWorld. There would've been a special tax relief for the first years of operation. The office of SamaWorld was in the Wisma Sama building in Petaling Jaya.The Sama Holdings Group with foreign investors, consultants and contractors from the US, Australia, Taiwan, Japan, West Germany, France, and Canada planned to undertake the project. The Sama Group was a conglomerate of diverse companies in trading, manufacturing, properties, and more. Sama was owned by Samanda and later Sakullah Holdings, a company founded by Lim Tuck Fatt and S. Kulasegaran.
The SamaWorld project comprised a Disney-like theme park, a hotel, residential and commercial developments, a health spa, a clubhouse, and a special events area with live shows. The estimated cost was around 1 billion Malaysian dollar including land clearing and initial infrastructure development cost around 540 million dollar and the theme park development around 600 million dollar. Financing was 35 % from equity and 65 % from borrowing. Initial assistance was by Shearson Lehman Malaysia and Rakyat Merchant Bankers Bhd. Shearson Lehman Brothers was the financial adviser for SamaWorld. A deal with the Canadian mining company Giant Bay Resources Ltd. was arranged and Giant Bay developed the residential and commercial part around SamaWorld.
The total area of the SamaWorld project was 140 hectares with 39 hectares occupied by the theme park. In 1987 the Land was purchased from Genting Bhd. Planning and construction was difficult because of the dense jungle terrain on a 5,500-foot-high mountain sloping 20 to 30 degrees. Land clearing and construction of the park started in 1990. The work had heavy civil engineering components with hand-dug caisson piles, slope stabilizations, drainage and sub soil drainage excavations, access road works and bulk earth works with construction of the highest reinforced earth walls and retaining structures at the time in Malaysia. The construction of a preview center on the site was financed by a fast food chain. First, the park was scheduled to open in 1990, then 1993, and later in 1995. The mountainous terrain and heavy monsoons led to a stop of the work. The expected opening was delayed until 1996 whereby the size of the park was scaled down to 12 hectares. Khong Guan bought 69% of SamaWorld and the completion date was set to 1998. With the consequences of the Asian financial crisis 1997 the project was abandoned. In 2003 an official receiver was appointed to take over the management of SamaWorld.
Name and marketing
According to the magazine Variety, sama means "happy" in Malay. The SamaWorld logo was a squirrel next to a globe with a banner reading "SamaWorld" and the slogan "Fantasy & Fun For Everyone". The project was announced in the New Straits Times with the phrase "A Small Step Taken By Us, A Giant Stride for Malaysians and the Nation." Selangor State Development urged SamaWorld to carry out "aggressive publicity campaigns" internationally. Malaysian Airlines did not buy stake in the project but wanted to promoted it as a tourist spot. Advertising focused on the unique location 5,000 ft above sea level in a cool environment. SamaWorld described itself as South East Asias first international theme park. On site promotion was with a preview centre showcasing the whole theme park in replica. Te preview centre was financed by KFC for the right to have premises in the park.Relationship with the Genting Group
In 1987 Genting BHD signed a sales and purchase agreement with Sama Holdings to sell 140 hectares of freehold land at Genting Highlands to SamaWorld.. Lim Kok Thay said that the development of a Disney-like Themepark would augur well for Genting's business. The stockbroker TA Securities assessed that the SamaWorld Themepark would increase the development potential of Genting Highlands. TA added that the SamaWorld project could help Genting's resort arm Resort World Bhd to diversify into property development and property could become a second core business after gaming for Genting. The official statement of Genting Bhd was: "Its a big world". Genting Bhd argued that the SamaWorld Theme Park would complement its own hotel and entertainment business and as the largest facility of its kind would vastly increase traffic to the Genting Highlands. SamaWorld resort project manager K.L. Chan said: "our project will change the world image of Genting Highlands from a gamblers resort to a place for the family." A collaboration with Genting Bhd to develop the SamaWorld theme park was considered.SamaWorld Theme Park
Planned was a Disneyland-type theme park with the concept "See the World in a Day". The continents Asia, Europe, Africa, and America should have been represented by attractions and landmark-replicas of different countries and the different areas connected via cable cars.- Plans for the Asian Adventure: Behind the main entrance Malaysia with traditional Malaysian and colonial style facades, with a representation of all 13 federal Malaysian states, a full sized 130 m long replicated part of the Great Wall of China built with the assistance of the Chinese Government, the Krakatoa volcano with a working eruption, a Japanese garden, a Japanese tea cup ride, and other activities from India, Singapore and Hong Kong.
- Plans for the European Fantasy: King Arthur's castle with Merlin's magic show, a hall with artificial falling snow called the Ice Kingdom, Viking longboat rides, and Venice gondola rides.
- Plans for the Americas: For North America a Wild West Town including saloons and cowboys, for South America a jungle terrain with a water log flume canoe ride as an "Indiana Jones" type adventure, and an Inca pyramid.
- Sama 5000: Planned was a futuristic World with intergalactic battles.