GEORGE TOWN – Penang MCA has slammed the state government over the issue of land sales, saying Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow has no other strategies to revive the economy.
Party spokesman Tang Heap Seng questioned why the state government has no strategies to recover the economy, other than selling land.
“The government should have numerous plans to recover the economy to save all levels of the society. I don’t understand why the state government is dependent on the sale of land,” he said at a press conference here yesterday.
He also condemned the attitude and failure of the chief minister in handling the Covid-19 pandemic and the state’s economy.
“Since the takeover of DAP in Penang in 2008, it keeps selling land, threatening the life of the people in Penang, and I hope the chief minister will stop selling the land in Penang as soon as possible.”
Tang added that Chow had during the state assembly admitted that since 2011, the state government, Penang Development Corporation and the Penang Island City Council have sold 1.1 acres (0.45ha) of land worth RM12.5 billion.
He said the previous state government under Barisan Nasional had sold land for development, but the DAP state government has been selling land to private companies, Singaporean corporations and private hospitals.
“That had only benefited private companies and not the people.
“A major portion of state land has been sold to private developers to build colleges, hospitals. Why is the DAP government selling state land to enrich these companies?”
Tang added the people would have benefited (from the land sales) if the state did not sell the land to these private and foreign companies.
“As an example, (if) RM12.5 billion was divided (between) Penang’s population of 1.7 million, each person would have received RM7,353, but the state recorded a deficit budget of RM400 last year and it had borrowed RM500 million from CIMB.
“With the RM12.5 billion, the state could have built 178,571 (housing) units that would have benefited a total of 180,000 families in the state.
“When Lim Guan Eng was chief minister, he boasted that the state revenue had increased, however it was revealed that he had sold state land to increase revenue.”
A week ago, Chow told the state assembly that Penang’s revenue this year will be down due to effects of the pandemic.
He then outlined four strategies to counter the matter. They were: to sell state land through an open tender process, to transfer dormant industrial state land to Penang Development Corporation, to reclassify rural land as urban plots in developed areas, and to convert land with unclear ownership into interim register land. – The Vibes, September 9, 2021
