DAP’s “whitewash” cannot hide Penang’s fall to below-average income state, says Gerakan
(The Star) – Statistics show that Penang has been under-performing since 2008 despite DAP’s attempts to “whitewash” the state’s economic performance, said Gerakan.
Responding to Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming’s statement that Penang’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is the second highest in Malaysia, Gerakan secretary-general Liang Teck Meng said Ong had failed to reveal the full data on the state’s economic performance.
“What he does not state is that even in 2007 before DAP took over, Penang already had the second highest GDP due to the previous Barisan Nasional policies in successfully attracting electronics giants to set-up plants there,” he said in a statement on Saturday.
Quoting Department of Statistics (DOSM) data, Liang said that in 2007, Kuala Lumpur’s GDP per capita was RM44,801, followed by Penang at RM31,039 and Selangor at RM25,481.
Liang added that in 2007, Penang’s GDP per capita per year was 69.3% of Kuala Lumpur’s.
“Now, Penang is a staggering RM54,098 behind Kuala Lumpur and is just 46.7% of Kuala Lumpur.
“This is because Penang had registered the third lowest GDP per capita growth from 2008 to 2016 among all 14 states,” he said.
Liang said Ong had proudly claimed that Penang had the fifth highest median and mean household incomes in 2016, behind Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Melaka.
“However, Ong does not state that before DAP took over, Penang had median and mean household incomes that were higher than Johor and Melaka — meaning both Johor and Melaka have overtaken Penang after DAP took over,” he said.
“DOSM 2016 figures shows that Penang is now officially a below-average mean household income state and this is embarrassing” said Liang.
On Ong’s claim that Penang had managed to replace the factories which has left with other job opportunities, Liang said that since 2011, Penang had also lost the No. 1 spot for investments and that this combination of lower investment and existing investments leaving is one reason why more Penang people are now working in other places such as Kuala Lumpur.
“Ong should acknowledge the problem and stop helping the Penang DAP government to cover and whitewash the harsh reality of its under-performance,” he said.
