Story and pix by Chan Lilian
PENANG is very, very bullish about investment and the general sentiment is Penang is still attractive to investors due to several reasons.
investPenang director Datuk Lee Kah Choon said this at a press briefing at the investPenang office in Bayan Baru on June 13 where he spoke on the Penang Economic Transformation.
However, Lee pointed out the changes in the industry and how trends of the immediate future will be heading towards handphones and phasing out desktop computers and laptops.
“Now we are into Global Business Services (GBS). Many of the electronics and electrical manufacturing activities in Penang have transformed over the 45 years. For example, Dell Penang’s activity has changed from desktop PC manufacturing to GBS and high-end server production. Meanwhile, Intel Penang has been moving away from low-cost manufacturing to high-end R&D and D&D in tablets and smartphones,” Lee said.
Aware of the rapid transformation with mergers and acquisition (M&A) taking place, Lee spoke on the steps being taken by investPenang to deal with the situation.
“In today’s industries and business, mergers and acquisition are commonly happening. This is not only to consolidate operations but also for other reasons such as increase in market share and technology synergies. Despite these changes, rapid M&A activities have also brought to Penang the next phase of development. Although the changes impacted Penang, Penang has stayed in the game all the time. Penang will change with time,” he said.