Dinner Speech by Lim Guan Eng to young CEOs in Palace of the Golden Horses in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 23^th February 2009: 

Penang’s record RM 10.2 billion in investments in 2008 and continued faith in the future potential is proven by its recent listing as one of the 31 outsourcing hubs of the future 

Penang’s record RM 10.2 billion in investments in 2008 and continued faith in the future potential is proven by its recent listing as one of the 31 outsourcing hubs of the future. The newly released KPMG professional service report listed as Penang as the only Malaysian city amongcst 31 other cities in the world that can challenge existing outsourcing hubs in India or China principally due to our superior human resources and talents.

We must identify the basic strengths that made Penang successful, namely the energy, enterprise and expertise and take steps to further consolidate these strengths. For this purpose Penang has set up an education hub to attract the best schools, colleges and teachers as well as launched the Penang@wireless initiative to make Penang the first wifi state in Malaysia. In recognition of the critical role played by knowledge-economy sectors, internet and computer technology, wifi will be offered free of charge and wimax at affordable rates.

The record RM 10.2 billion investment in 2008 is not only a quantitative but also a qualitative success. Good governance based on CAT principles – Competency, Accountability and Transparency is the key to success in the state government’s vision to transform Penang into an international city. We not only doubled the 2007 investment figures of RM 4.7 billion but also attracted quality and brand names such as Honeywell (US), National Instruments (US) and Ibiden (Japan).

The Penang state government has identified key quality investors based on 8S --the 8 effective characteristics of successful companies. The 8S are:

1) Standards and Brandings of Products

2) Service to consumers

3) Scalability to ensure economies of scale

4) Segmentation for diverse range of products

5) Security to ensure safe usage

6) Schedule adherence

7) Sustainable to ensure resources used today are still available to be used tomorrow

8) Corporate Social Responsibility

Penang’s ability to attract these quality investments which fulfill the 8S has allowed Penang to be known as the Silicon Valley of the East. Our challenge now is to transform Penang into the software capital of Malaysia and one of the key outsourcing hubs in the world as identified by KPMG. We believe that if all Malaysians who believe in the vision of the Penang state government of giving a level playing field, equal opportunities and developing the full potential of our human resources should boldly invest now to take advantage of tomorrow’s business prospects. After all the economic recession is not going to last forever and we must look beyond the economic recession in 2 years time.

* Lim Guan Eng, DAP Secretary-General & Penang Chief Minister; Member of Parliament for Bagan