"Penangites have not only been losing in relative income, we have also been losing our people especially to Singapore where many of you have prospered," he said in his speech at the Penang Free School and Chung Ling Old Boy’s Dinner in Singapore on Monday,

"The director of Singapore National Cancer Institute is from Penang, and Singapore would be in trouble if Malaysian doctors suddenly quit en masse," he quipped.

"The Chief Justice and many Appeal Court and High Court judges are also from Penang," added Lim who led a delegation of key state officials on a two-day working visit to Singapore.

"There is no doubt that Penang has been in a state of decline the past 18 years in both physical infrastructure and human capital development as well as growth in family incomes," said Lim, adding that the Ninth Malaysian Plan revealed that Penang's family incomes increased the least among all the states over the last 10 years, including Sabah and Sarawak.

He noted that between 1999 and 2004, Penang family incomes grew by 2.5% annually, while the average for the whole country was 6.6%.

"In 1999, our income was 85% of what people in Selangor were making. In 2004, we were only 68% as rich as people in the Klang Valley," he said.

Lim said Singapore Mentor Minister Lee Kuan Yew who recently visited Penang had expressed three points: the state's infrastructure appeared inferior compared with Ipoh or Seremban; Penang needed better infrastructure such as roads, bridges, airports and other communications links; and the state government should work with the federal government to get funds to build the infrastructure needed.

However, not everybody agreed with Lee or Lim.

Gerakan Wanita deputy chief Ng Siew Lai said Lim had painted a wrong picture of Penang’s development.

"In the past 20 years, the former BN-led state government and the federal government had maintained close cooperation, and that led to the successful implementation of a number of infrastructure plans."

Lee Kah Choon

She pointed to the expansion of the airport, the Penang Port, Penang Bridge and TNB power supply, as well as the development of the Teluk Bahang Dam, flood mitigation projects and highways as examples.

She noted that Penang had also won international honours, including:

> the United Nations’ "Pioneer City" status in August 1999, the first such honour for a Southeast Asian city;

> Asiaweek magazine’s listing of George Town as among "Asia's top 10 most desirable cities to live" in November 1998. George Town was ranked sixth;

> Conde Nast Traveller magazine’s listing of Penang as the sixth amongst "the world's 10 most popular holiday islands" in October 1999.

InvestPenang executive committee board chairman Datuk Lee Kah Choon agreed the infrastructure development has been stagnant for decades but is, however, still the best compared to southern Thailand and north Sumatra.

These were his examples of poor infrastructure:

> We are still using the railway tracks that were built since before independence

> The Penang port has not been upgraded for decades. The jetty in Butterworth which collapsed in 1988 was left as it is till now.

> The airport, which may have been upgraded a few times, still does not have international-class capacity.

Kah Choon said both the state and the federal governments should look beyond political differences to cooperate for the sake of the state and country.

Link to Other Stories:

Penang set to get RM700m in investments