Deputy Chief Minister 1 Datuk Mansor Othman said the low investments from Singapore last year was due to the global economic crisis at the end of 2008.
“Singapore, which mostly imports technology relating to aerospace, invested RM258mil in 2008 and RM193mil in 2009.
“The increase in investments is due to the efforts of the state government in disseminating information on investment opportunities in Penang,” he said in his winding-up speech.
Mansor said Malaysian Industrial Development Authority approved RM4.63bil worth of investments involving 56 projects in Penang in the first seven months of the year.
From that amount, local investments contributed RM1.04bil while RM3.59bil was from foreign direct investments, he said.
“As a result of investments last year, 21,618 jobs were created,” he said.
Jagdeep Singh Deo (DAP-Datuk Keramat) complained that there were no chairs, tables and even lightbulbs in the three halls used by the Community Security and Development Committees in his constituency when he received the keys to the buildings last year.
“Why has this happened? I was told by the district office that the items were given to the previous assemblyman.
“Were the items bought with his own money or were they government property?” he asked.
