Penang economy seen growing 4.7pc

The Penang economy is expected to grow 4.7 per cent this year compared to negative 3.2 per cent last year.

Yang Dipertua Negeri Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas said signs of the economic recovery could be seen from the number of workers retrenched reduced to 3,565 in 2009 from 5,776 the previous year.

"In addition, there were 2,319 vacancies created in the agriculture, services, hotels, quarrying, manufacturing, transport and social services sectors in 2009," he said when opening the third term of the 12th state assembly today.

Abdul Rahman spoke for only two minutes, during which he called on members of the House to live up to the expectation. His text of speech was later distributed to the members and the media.

The opening of the state assembly sitting was postponed from April 19 when Abdul Rahman was taken ill.

Abdul Rahman said the government had submitted an application for a RM12.56 billion allocation under the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP) to the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister's Department.

On tourism, said the state government targeted tourist arrivals to exceed six million this year with a revenue of RM10.8 billion.

He said the state government would also attract private sector investment in new tourism products like the Auto City Theme Park in Sungai Juru coastal areas costing RM10 million and the Eco-Fun Theme Park in Teluk Bahang besides focusing on medical tourism," he added.

"In 2009, RM162 million was contributed by medical tourism. The state government aims at increasing the revenue to RM190 million in 2010," he added. -- Bernama