Chow Kon Yeow, who was sworn in as Penang’s fifth chief minister for the second term, has set his focus on the Penang2030 vision. With an emphasis on industrial and infrastructure projects, Chow aims to transform Penang into a developed state.
The industrial sector is shifting to attract high-value and technology-related businesses, such as medical technology and digital. Meanwhile, Chow is also looking to at least kick-start all infrastructure projects: Penang South Islands, 5G coverage and the long-overdue LRT project. He tells City & Country about his plans for the state.
The industrial sector is shifting to attract high-value and technology-related businesses, such as medical technology and digital. Meanwhile, Chow is also looking to at least kick-start all infrastructure projects: Penang South Islands, 5G coverage and the long-overdue LRT project. He tells City & Country about his plans for the state.
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00:00 Indeed, investment in our manufacturing sector is something that we monitor very closely.
00:23 Looking back at the previous two or three years, I think we have achieved tremendous
00:30 results.
00:34 For instance, in 2021, we attracted 76.1 billion ringgit in investment, mostly foreign direct
00:46 investment, and it had been a record-breaking year.
00:56 In 2022, we also achieved about 13 billion in investment.
01:03 So all these figures are actually above the average that we are looking at.
01:11 But we are not about to chase after an impressive figure.
01:18 What we are interested in is to attract high-value investment, which can create high-value jobs.
01:26 And also in line with what we are promoting in the state, we have just celebrated our
01:34 50 years of industrialisation.
01:37 I think it is about time that Penang moves up the value chain, and we focus on attracting
01:45 high-value investment in the technology sector.
01:50 We are still the semiconductor hub, and we are also moving into medical tech, global
02:01 business outsourcing, and these are the areas that we are very interested in.
02:09 So we hope that this year, if we can pull in about 10 billion ringgit investment, it
02:19 would be considered a good year because of probably the softening of the market generally.
02:28 So as I say, we are not chasing after impressive numbers, but more importantly, chasing the
02:37 right type of investment into the state.
02:39 MedTech should be promoted, and we think we will become the MedTech hub of Asia because
02:51 we have already a cluster here, a cluster of medical devices companies.
03:00 They are at the moment about three or four MedTech hubs in the world.
03:07 Ireland, Costa Rica, and another one.
03:17 But in Asia-Pacific, I think Malaysia, Penang is attracting attention as the MedTech hub
03:25 of Asia, but in Penang we have now a cluster of MedTech companies coming here, and success
03:36 breeds more success.
03:37 I think if we have an ecosystem that can attract more medical tech companies here, then we
03:46 would grow as we have grown as a semiconductor hub.
03:50 So that would be another sector that we can strengthen, deep-root it, so that it will
04:01 continue to attract related MedTech players to come and invest.
04:06 So that is how our semiconductor grows, because we are able to attract more vendors, more
04:14 suppliers to come, to be nearer to their customers in Asia-Pacific, to support their principal
04:25 companies.
04:26 As one company comes to invest, they may bring along a few vendors to be nearer to supply
04:35 to the principal company.
04:38 That is how the ecosystem grows.
04:41 What other high value industries?
04:46 What other?
04:47 Of course it is related to digital transformation.
04:53 This morning I was at Prye to officiate one company that is involved in production of
05:06 servers, IoT, it runs into billions.
05:16 So all these high value sectors that we hope to attract.
05:22 Thank you.
05:23 Thank you.
05:23 Thank you.
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