KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — The McDonald’s ‘Fries Crossing at the main intersection of Bukit Bintang is McDonald’s Malaysia’s initiative towards making Kuala Lumpur a prosperous city by 2030.
The pedestrian walkway, which is in front of the Bukit Bintang McDonald’s and the first McDonald’s outlet to open in Malaysia 40 years ago, is inspired by its fries.
According to McDonald’s Malaysia managing director and local operating partner, Datuk Azmir Jaafar, the initiative is a sign of support for efforts by the Federal Territories Ministry and the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) in improving physical, service and socio -economic development plans in the federal capital.
“With the announcement on the opening of the country’s border, we are confident that this ‘McDonald’s Fries Crossing’ will be an added value to the beauty of Kuala Lumpur and a compulsory location, especially for young people, to add to their collection of ‘posts’ on their social media.
“Hopefully, this initiative can further boost the name of Kuala Lumpur, in particular, and Malaysia, in general, as a compulsory destination for visitors in Kuala Lumpur,” he said in his speech at the opening of the McDonald’s Fries Crossing by Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kassim here yesterday (March 15).
Also present was Deputy Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Jalaluddin Alias.
Meanwhile, Azmir, when met by reporters, said the pedestrian crossing initiative was carried out in collaboration with DBKL, with McDonald’s Malaysia to sponsor the maintenance cost of the crossing for a year.
In another development, Azmir said McDonald’s business was established in Malaysia 40 years ago with its first restaurant opened in 1982.
Currently, he said, there were 318 McDonald’s restaurants nationwide with 15,000 employees.
“Through McDonald’s Malaysia 2026 vision, we will open 205 new restaurants, bringing to a total of 500 McDonald’s restaurants in the country by 2026, thus creating 50,000 job opportunities for the young people,” he added.
Azmir also said giving back to the community was McDonald’s core value and through its collaboration with various parties, more than 1.5 million food packs worth almost RM10 million were distributed to frontline workers since the COVID-19 hit the country.
Apart from that, he said, McDonald’s Malaysia, through the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC), also organised various community and welfare programmes to help underprivileged children in the country with an annual contribution of between RM3 and RM4 million.
“This contribution includes the construction of three Ronald McDonald houses which have been opened for use by parents who have to take care of their children who are treated in hospital and cannot afford to rent a hotel.
“Besides that, the contribution is also used to help those who require left lip surgery, which has been carried out for the past 15 years, setting up 35 sensory therapy rooms and providing assistance to urban poor children under the Back to School Programme, ” he added.
With the approaching of Ramadan, Azmir said, McDonald’s Malaysia, would continue to provide contributions for “moreh” to be held at mosques near McDonald’s restaurants in Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya.
Meanwhile, Shahidan welcome the McDonald’s ‘Fries Crossing by McDonald’s Malaysia, saying that such an initiative it could provide more attractions for tourists, as well as encourage participation from other companies.
“The government will also provide the support to interested companies so that their economic activities can continue to flourish and thus, generate more employment opportunities,” he added.
