FORMER Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has thrown caution to the wind as the US has yet to formally announce if it was going ahead to impose tariffs on the semiconductor industry.
While Lim was supportive of the increase in development expenditure to address possible negative repercussions from the US import tariffs, especially over the uncertainty surrounding tariffs on semiconductors, Lim said the lowest historical fiscal deficit of RM19.92 million forecasted for next year, is good.
But Lim stressed that the state can do better, as it had recorded surpluses prior to 2019 in comparison to the deficits now.
Lim said that revenue to be collected is related to the economic growth that the state can attain.
"Here, I want to suggest a few things. Although, the state has achieved a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 4.8% in 2024, it is still lower than the national average GDP of 5.1%. The state can do better."
For this year, Lim said that Penang needs to be praised as the state's GDP forecast is a 5.4% growth compared to the national average growth of 4.8%.
But the growth may turn sluggish next year due to the uncertainty in the global marketplace because of the tariffs.
Lim said that Penang needs to improve on its productivity as the state sits in ninth place compared to others based on the data given by the Department of Statistics Malaysia.
He said that more attention is needed to figure out why the worker productivity rate in Penang, is at 1.9%, which is relatively lower compared to other states.
Lim said that he hopes that the proposed Penang International Financial Center can be realised by the federal government.
"Having balanced growth between both areas of Penang is an aspiration of the state government and I hope the Opposition backbenchers would support the proposal."
Lim said this when debating the tabling of the state fiscal Budget for next year at the state legislative assembly sitting. - November 19, 2025.
