Blueprint for Penang’s growth

THE Penang Institute, a state think tank, will table a comprehensive development plan called the ‘Penang Paradigm’ for the coming decade.

The framework will be tabled to the state government and the residents.

Its executive director Prof Datuk Woo Wing Thye said they would hold public consultations to gain feedback from the people.

The think tank wants the people’s views on ways to improve the plan’s coverage, analysis and implementation aspects.

He said the public consultation would be held for two weeks starting from Feb 23.

It will be held at Town Hall on Penang island and at the Seberang Prai Municipal Council premises on the mainland.

He said the report would seek to beef up the economic dynamism of Penang, improve liveability and the sustainability of its natural environment while accelerating the state’s social development.

“We will upload the report to penangparadigm.com.

“We welcome online suggestions. The key policies we propose are also applicable to the country as a whole.

“Our plan also diagnoses why Penang and Malaysia have been caught in the middle-income trap for the last 15 years.

“We have failed to close the income gap with the rich countries,” he said during a press conference.

Prof Woo said three factors — fresh ideas, private investments and public infrastructure — were vital to enable a sustainable high growth.

He added that three sets of national policies had rendered the country vulnerable, leaving it caught in the middle-income trap.

These included growing over-centralisation of decision-making at the federal level, and an increasing non-transparency of central governmental operations.

“Specifically, the socio-economic policies are open to abuse by the rich and politically well-connected.

“These have contributed to a brain drain, which has reduced the capacity to generate good ideas for business, governance, the arts and literature.

“There is also a capital flight which has reduced the capacity to finance investment,” he said. - The Star