PENANG has achieved a record high in total approved manufacturing investments in 2019, attracting RM16.9 billion, up 192% year-on-year and more than double its 10-year average of RM8 billion from 2010 to 2019.
The RM16.9 billion, from strong inflows of both new and re-investments into the state, accounted for 20% of Malaysia’s total manufacturing investments.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said according to an investment report for 2019 released by the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) two days ago, out of the RM16.9 billion manufacturing investments into the state, foreign direct investments (FDI) accounted for RM15 billion with 166 projects.
This translates to 89% of the total investment inflows while the remaining RM1.9 billion or 11% were manufacturing domestic direct investments (DDI).
The RM15 billion FDI is an impressive increase of 306% year-on-year and accounted for 28% of the country’s total manufacturing FDI, making Penang the country’s top FDI destination.
“Both of these figures are the highest achievement in our state’s history to date,” Chow said via Facebook Live on his Facebook page today from his office in Komtar.
“This signifies that foreign investors still have high confidence in the investment ecosystem offered by Penang.
“Penang has no natural resources but we do have a wealth of talents that are often envied and have attracted investors. Congratulations and thanks to everyone!
“We will work hard to ensure our state economy is resilient in the face of the new normal due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Selangor was the next highest FDI achiever with RM10.4 billion while Kedah came third with RM8.086 billion.
Chow said the services sector was the largest contributor to Penang’s gross domestic product (GDP), accounting for 49%. This was followed by the manufacturing sector at 46%.
He said the services sector in Penang provides employment to about 300,000 workers, with almost half of them involved in the tourism industry.
Chow added that according to a crisis assessment report by Penang Institute, the state government’s think-tank, 99% of businesses in the services sector in Penang are in the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The same report also analysed 46 types of SME category businesses involving four major sectors, namely agriculture, construction, manufacturing and services, and found that the services sector was the most affected by the Covid-19 crisis.
Based on the analysis, 74.9% of SMEs in the arts, entertainment and recreation sub-sectors are micro enterprises and the economic risk to these groups is extremely high.
Chow said due to the importance of this sector, the state government has decided to establish the ‘Penang Tourism Next Normal Taskforce’ to gather the views of key stakeholders and formulate strategies to ensure the viability of the sector.
The taskforce is headed by Chow himself with state Tourism Development, Arts, Culture and Heritage (Petach) Committee chairman Yeoh Soon Hin as the deputy chairman and the Penang Global Tourism (PGT) as the secretariat.
They will hold a virtual round table meeting on April 25 with industry leaders for an initial discussion on the impact they are facing.
“We intend to take early action to ensure the survival of the people and the state of Penang as a whole,” Chow explained.
On Monday, the state government, through Digital Penang, organised PLC19 eCrowdSource: Hacking the Next Normal, a virtual roundtable gathering that brought together technology players to discus technology solutions to help Penang tackle the ‘next normal’ challenge.
Chow said he was informed by the Penang police chief that under the movement control order (MCO) Phase Three thus far from April 15 to yesterday, the compliance rate was 97.92% while the total number of arrests during the 36 days of MCO was 566 people.
He said he was also thankful that the state has zero Covid-19 new cases for the past week and reiterated his appreciation to the frontliners, workers and security personnel for their hard work.
Chow later received donation of medical equipment worth RM102,000 by Ckone Charity Association (CCA) for the state Health Department.
CCA was represented by its president Lim Cheng Seang and secretary Lim Kok Beng while the state Health Department was represented by the chief assistant director of the legal medical unit, R.A. Lingeshwaran, at the presentation. Also present were Ckone medical advisers Dr Mohamed Jahangir and Dr Zarina Banu.
Ckone Charity Association also contributed RM5,000 to the Penang Covid-19 Fund.
Chow also received donation of 110 boxes of groceries worth RM15,000 from the Malaysian Bumiputra Contractors Association of Malaysia, which was represented by its president Datuk Izham Omar Merican and deputy president Abdul Jalil Mohd Hassan.
Also present was state Welfare, Caring Society and Environment Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh.
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Alvie Cheng
Video by Law Suun Ting