Is the Penang government incompetent in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) into the state?

Gerakan certainly thinks so in view of shrinking FDI, but the DAP-led administration wants to know which planet its political rival lives on.

NONEThe tit-for-tat exchange was triggered by Gerakan state assistant secretary Goh Kheng Sneah citing data from the 2009 Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (Mida) report.

It states that Penang obtained some RM1.7 billion worth of fresh investments for the manufacturing sector and about RM10 billion worth of industrial investments.

"This is a drop by nearly 90 percent . . . it's bad for Penang's economy," claimed Goh.

The big investors were from Taiwan (RM510 million), Singapore (RM191 million), Denmark (RM135 million) and China (RM117 million).

Major multinational corporations (MNCs) from the US, Japan and Germany had previously been key investors in the state, he said.

However, the US is now ranked fifth, while Japan has plunged to eighth position in the state investment ladder.

Goh attributed this to lack of confidence in the Pakatan Rakyat administration of the state.

"The state government lacks skills...It does not know how to attract investors," he told a press conference at the state assembly building today.

He further said there is poor maintenance of infrastructure and of the traffic management system in industrial areas, both on the island and mainland.

‘Guarantee not possible'

Goh also revived the claim that Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had turned away a RM10 billion proposal by a MNC, by claiming that the state lacks engineers.

NONEIn immediate response, Lim denied he had turned away the proposal, saying the state government was unable to guarantee a steady supply of 1,000 engineers to the investor.

"I don't want to give a written guarantee to anyone because the government would end up paying compensation for failing to fulfill its promise," he said.

He refuted Goh's claim that he had given Singapore, a regional competitor, the edge by saying that Penang lacks engineers.

"We must face the reality that we cannot compete with Singapore. It is in a different league. I think Gerakan is living on different planet," he said.

Lim added that the drop in investments is part of a global phenomenon, and that even the country as a whole has been affected.