{"id":4459,"date":"2013-03-07T09:00:08","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T01:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/?p=4459"},"modified":"2013-03-06T23:01:39","modified_gmt":"2013-03-06T15:01:39","slug":"penang-launches-10-year-people-centric-development-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/penang-launches-10-year-people-centric-development-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Penang launches 10-year people-centric development plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>KUALA LUMPUR, 6 Mar \u2014 Penang Paradigm, a ten-year development framework for the Penang state government has been launched, envisioning the northern state\u2019s path towards achieving a \u201cbalanced society\u201d towards 2023.<\/p>\n

Officiating the Kuala Lumpur launch of the plan here, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the plan aims to develop Penang further as an international and intelligent state.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr to put it simply, to make Penang no.1 in Malaysia,\u201d Lim said.<\/p>\n

Three main drivers of progress<\/strong><\/p>\n

Produced by the state-funded think-tank Penang Institute, Penang Paradigm aims for \u201cholistic progress\u201d, motivated by what it identified as three \u201cmain drivers of progress\u201d, namely ideas, private investments and public infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Lim said the state government\u2019s vision for Penang is for the state to become a \u201cregional hub\u201d that will build, upgrade, attract and retain international talent, rising up to be the state that \u201ceducates and nurtures talent\u201d while promoting and rewarding diligence, expertise and entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

In his speech, Lim said Penang is also set to be a state that is livable \u201cby being clean, green, safe and healthy\u201d, with its governance practicing integrity, justice and \u201cbeing people-centric\u201d.<\/p>\n

Closing the gap<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lim also lamented Malaysia\u2019s worsening brain drain, bringing up the point that two million Malaysians that have left the country, allegedly due to the lack of educational and economic opportunities, added up by discrimination, corruption and lack social justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur loss has been other countries\u2019 gain. Penang, especially, has given other countries their professors, doctors, engineers, chief justices and cabinet ministers. This state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue,\u201d Lim said.<\/p>\n

The Member of Parliament for Bagan also cited the Penang\u2019s sterling achievement in reducing the state debt by 95%, gaining consecutive budget surpluses ever since 2008, which enabled the state government to introduce many innovative programmes benefiting Penangites.<\/p>\n

Penang’s asset is its people<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bolstering the state government\u2019s people-centric policies, Lim said the Penang Paradigm\u2019s strategic vision is based on Penang\u2019s greatest asset: its people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that we can provide the best environment for people to live in if we have a people-centric government that invests in people, that educates and trains the people, that frees the people to innovate and engage in enterprise, and that liberates the people from ignorance, poverty and disability so that that they can be full participants in our economy and in our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cQuality of life in Penang should not be just for the rich, but for all who live and stay in Penang,\u201d Lim said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis requires quality affordable housing, efficient and effective public transport, green open spaces accessible to all, a clean and healthy natural environment and a vibrant arts, culture and heritage landscape,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Crowd sourcing approach to state planning<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lim said that Penang Paradigm has surfaced out of the belief that it is the government that should fear the people, not the other way around.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time has come when the people should no longer fear the government, but that the government should fear the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it is because we, the Penang state government, fear the people that we have adopted this crowd-sourcing approach in order to seek input from the people at large,\u201d urged Lim.<\/p>\n

Penang Paradigm was first launched in George Town on 23 February. \u2014 The Rocket<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR, 6 Mar \u2014 Penang Paradigm, a ten-year development framework for the Penang state government has been launched, envisioning the northern state\u2019s path towards achieving a \u201cbalanced society\u201d towards 2023. Officiating the Kuala Lumpur launch of the plan here, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the plan aims to develop Penang further as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[274],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}