City & Country's interview with Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow #6

The Edge TV

The Penang government is ramping up its efforts to ensure balanced development on the island and mainland through multiple authorised platforms. Can you tell us more about the progress?

Transcript

00:00 Undeniably, I think the island was developed first, many years ahead of the Sebrang Prairie.

00:23 But if you look at industrial estate that I talked about just now, we celebrated 50

00:31 years of industrialisation.

00:33 We have about seven to eight industrial parks in the state that accommodate 300 over MNCs

00:46 and 4,000 over SMI, SME in the whole state.

00:53 But where do you find the industrial park?

00:56 On the island, that is just the Bayang Lepas Industrial Park.

01:01 But the rest are all in Sebrang Prairie, beginning from Makmandin, if you are familiar with Penang,

01:07 Makmandin, Prai, Puket Tengah, Pematan Tinggi, Puket Minyak, and the newer ones, Penang Science

01:21 Park North, Penang Science Park South, Wadoh, Patukawan, Bayram.

01:29 All these are in fact on Sebrang Prairie.

01:34 And with the better road system, North Sub Highway, Butterworth-Kulim Expressway, I said

01:47 a few years back that the future of Penang is in Sebrang Prairie.

01:53 And more development will happen in Sebrang Prairie, but there are also the infrastructure

01:59 challenges that we need to resolve.

02:03 When you talk about land availability, definitely we have to look over to the Sebrang Prairie

02:11 side because Penang Island definitely has this great constraint for land to be available

02:20 for development purpose.

02:24 And we, until now, have not approved a lot of projects in Balik Pulau side.

02:36 Balik Pulau remains what it is, although there are some housing projects coming into Balik

02:43 Pulau as well.

02:45 But if it's for industrial, commercial, we definitely have to look at Sebrang Prairie.

02:51 So moving forward, I think it is not only island and Sebrang Prairie, the need to strike

03:02 a balance.

03:03 Even in Sebrang Prairie itself, there is also disparity between Sebrang Prairie North, Sebrang

03:12 Prairie Central, and Sebrang Prairie South.

03:15 So I think each district will be given due attention because we need to create opportunity

03:25 for jobs, business opportunity as well.

03:30 So a lot more attention will be focused on Sebrang Prairie.

03:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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