PENANG is willing to adopt the World Bank’s recommendations outlining four key thrusts that could transform Malaysia into a high-income economy, said Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

“Penang is willing to be the test bed and adopt the latest recommendations in the 2009 World Bank Report,” he said during a dialogue with Malaysian students of the University of California in Berkeley, San Francisco, recently.

He said the report had suggested an integrated strategy which required sustainable efforts in promoting further specialisation of the economy, improving the skill base of the labour force, making growth more inclusive and bolstering public finances for Malaysia to become a high- income economy.

On specialising, Lim said Penang’s achievements included being the Silicon Valley of Malaysia with room to expand on its range of goods and services, Wi-Fi initiative, and efforts to become a green state.

He added that Penang had the Penang Skills Development Centre and established Centres of Excellence for specialised fields as well as a new Education Hub.

As for making growth more inclusive, Lim said Penang had carried out initiatives such as providing micro-credit loans to the poor, granting water rebates to the lower and middle-income groups, and RM100 yearly payments to senior citizens.

He said Penang had good governance based on competency, accountability and transparency, and this would help increase productivity and efficiency and support a knowledge-intensive industry.

He also said the government’s careful and prudent budgeting achieved a record surplus of RM88mil last year against an earlier projected deficit of RM35mil.

The Star Online, Thursday December 17, 2009