Opening remarks by Lim Guan Eng at the Joint Penang Industry Advisory Panel (PIAP) and Penang Services Advisory Panel (PSAP) Meeting at Langkawi Room, Level 3, Traders Hotel, Penang on Tuesday, 27^th March 2012: at 5 pm 

Penang's outreach programme seeks convergence in the government, manufacturing and services sector 

Good evening ladies and gentlemen.

Penang's Outreach Programme seeks convergence in the government, manufacturing and services sector similar to convergence of products, technology and services in the private industry.

This convergence is part of Penang state government's efforts to equalize the contribution of the services sector to the GDP with the manufacturing sector. Presently, manufacturing contributes 57% to Penang's GDP as compared to 40% from the services to Penang's GDP of around RM50 billion. By 2020, Penang hopes that the services will contribute at least 50% of Penang's GDP to enable Penang to escape the middle-income trap and become a high-income economy.

I have been informed that members of the Penang Services Advisory Panel (PSAP) participated in the Investment and Promotion Mission to Aceh, organised by investPenang in July last year. The objective of the mission was to strengthen ties between the Government of Aceh and the Penang State Government. Pursuant to the mission, the PSAP has decided to sponsor 2 participants a year, for a one-month on-the-job training stint in Penang. Called the Penang – Aceh Professional Development Fellowship Programme, it will take 3 years, thus a total of 6 participants from Aceh will benefit from this programme.

The programme will commence this year and investPenang will sponsor the airfare, stipend, insurance and other related expenses for bringing in the participants. E&O Hotel and Lone Pine Hotel have offered to sponsor the first 2 participants for this year.

As the Malaysian Government allows cross-border attachment programmes in the tourism / hospitality and manufacturing sectors, I would like to urge members of the PSAP as well as the PIAP to participate in this programme and sponsor the participants from Aceh.

investPenang has drawn out the eligibility criteria for the participants, i.e. age ranges from 20 to 40 years; citizen of Indonesia and resident of Aceh; currently having a full-time job with minimum of 2 years of working experience; hold a degree or professional certificate; proficient in English and demonstrate leadership ability; and have a clean bill of health.

The PSAP has also been actively assisting investPenang in promoting Penang as a potential hub for business process outsourcing (BPO) activities. Thus far, PSAP has participated in 2 of investPenang’s mission, targeting at promoting the BPO sector. The first was to Manila, Philippines in October last year and the second mission was to Hong Kong in early March this year.

The KPMG's Exploring Global Frontier Report in 2009 has identified Penang as one of the 31 emerging IT-BPO cities in the world. We deem BPO activities as means for us to move up the value chain as well as to create better paying jobs for the people of Penang.

Nevertheless, we shall also continue to emphasise the development of the manufacturing sector as an engine of economic growth for the State. Not forgetting that the Industrial Development Report 2009 by UNIDO positioned Penang as top 10 dynamic industrial locations in the world that have demonstrated a successful manufacturing experience among the developing economies.

In addition to the joint advisory panel meeting today, we are also here to introduce the Penang Industry Advisory Panel (PIAP) and we are confident that with the present team of industry captains as members of this panel, the PIAP will be as active and effective as the PSAP.

With this, I would like to hand over to Mr Marco Battistotti to present the PSAP report. Thank you.

*Lim Guan Eng, Penang Chief Minister