KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 6 — Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng questioned today his predecessor Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon’s claim that the state would benefit greatly from the National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs). Lim pointed out that none of the 19 entry point projects (EPP) under the NKEA was located in Penang.
“Penang’s failure to snare even one out of the 19 EPPs is unfair, discriminatory and unacceptable when there are only 13 states in Malaysia excluding the Federal Territory,” said Lim in a statement.
“However the Penang state government is willing to trust Tan Sri Dr Koh one more time that Penang will benefit from the 19 EPPs,” said the DAP secretary-general.
“Based on the RM67 billion in investments, Penang should benefit at least RM 5 billion on a proportional basis as one of the 13 beneficiary states. Tan Sri Dr Koh should quickly provide details of when and where the RM5 billion in investments will be distributed as soon as possible,” he added.
Dr Koh had said two days ago that Penang has never been marginalised and said that the state would benefit from 10 out of the 12 NKEAs including the electronics industry, communications, tourism and health care.
Lim also questioned again the high investment cost in job creation under the NKEA.
“At the same time, the federal government should also explain why RM67 billion in investments under the 19 EPPs can generate only 35,000 jobs or RM2 million per job,” said Lim.
“As compared to the 2010 total private domestic and foreign investments of RM RM 47,177 million will help create 97,319 jobs or less than RM500,000 per job. Such great disparity requires explanations as to what type of jobs are created under the 19 EPPs that needs RM2 million to generate one job,” he added.
The NKEA is part of the government’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) to transform the country into a high income economy which was launched last October.-MalaysianInsider
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