REVITALISATION and rejuvenation of the Bayan Lepas Industrial Park and Bandar Bayan Baru are the way forward.
Hence, the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) is carrying out several projects to make Penang continue to be attractive to world-class industrial players.
On Aug 21, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng announced some of the plans.
“PDC’s RM62 million innoplex building is the first step towards the convergence of talent, technology and tolerance which are the key elements of a creative cluster. With tolerance as one of the factors, people can come up with new ideas without fear,” Lim said at a press conference in Komtar.
Being the first free trade zone in Malaysia which was opened in 1972, Bayan Lepas Industrial Park (1,400 acres) has over 40 years of industrial experience, supported by adjacent Bayan Baru Township (3,600 acres).
Since the establishment of the Free Trade Zone in Bayan Lepas, Penang has attracted many world-class industrial players such as AMD, Hewlett Packard (now Agilent), Intel, Osram, Robert Bosch, Clarion and B Braun.
In 2005, Bayan Lepas was also accorded the Cybercity status by MSC Malaysia, hence providing the next impetus of growth for multimedia-based companies.
Datuk Lee Kah Choon, Special Adviser to Chief Minister of Penang, laid out some of the objectives in a short presentation.
“Penang is focused on sustainability so that it can remain competitive in the long run. The state government recognises a need to revitalise and rejuvenate the Bayan Lepas Industrial Park and Bandar Bayan Baru with the following objectives centred on a creative cluster development model:
– to maximise land utilization and productivity;
– to develop new international Grade-A building and office spaces to meet demand of investors;
– to upgrade the industrial park to world class standard;
– to incorporate and integrate invest, work, live, learn and play environment, and
– to establish creative clusters combining the 3Ts of Talent, Technology and Tolerance.
This revitalisation and rejuvenation project also aims to upgrade the industrial and business parks to cater for higher value investment and jobs,” Lee said.
The state government recently completed several development projects.
The most recent is the RM62 million Innoplex building on a 8.3-acre plot in Phase 4, developed by PDC to house Motorola Solution’s R&D operations.
Completed in June 2014, this state-of-the-art seven-storey facility has a total built up area of 193,795 sq ft and has 1,200 carparks.
The purpose of this facility is to consolidate the operations of two sites previously occupied by Motorola, thereby helping to increase Motorola’s operating efficiencies and keeping their cost low.
PDC expects the cost incurred to be recovered in 10 years through leasing arrangement of the facility.
The sole tenant is Motorola and the company is leasing the facility from PDC for a period of 10 years at RM2.15 per sq. ft per month with an incremental of 3 per cent per annum.
Each carpark is leased at RM30 per lot and has an incremental rate of RM2 per annum.