CHIEF Minister Chow Kon Yeow has urged foreign companies to revise salaries and provide better conditions for their employees, particularly engineers and other professionals, to retain talent in the state.
He said as the state continues to woo investors and set a target of RM5 billion in foreign investment every year, thousands of job opportunities would be created in the next few years.
“In order to attract Penangites and retain their talents, maybe they should revise the salaries of engineers, professionals, technicians and others. Besides that, this will attract graduates from other states.
“When graduates choose a place to work, they will look at the sustainability and livability of the city. And when they want to set up families, they will also look at the educational facilities from kindergarten to university.
“All these make our state attractive. These are important factors and they play a crucial part in the ecosystem for talents to work here.
“As for the state government, we will strive to draw more investors by continuing to strengthen various measures and initiatives to improve the qualify of life,” Chow said during a press conference after flagging off as well as joining the City Walk at the Esplanade today.
He added that although the Covid-19 pandemic had impacted a lot of businesses, the state still managed to achieve a record RM16.9 billion in total approved manufacturing investments in 2019 and RM14.1 billion in 2020.
For last year’s investment data, Chow said it would only be released sometime early this year.
“Until now, the electronics and electrical (E&E) sector is the main drawcard for investors to Penang. So we want to leverage on E&E to expand other related sectors such as medical devices.
“We will continue to promote manufacturing and services sectors and also concentrate on digital economy.
“We have to branch out of manufacturing to the digital economy which will leverage on the E&E and the communications technology. That is our future plans besides focusing on creative tourism economy,” Chow said.
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Law Suun Ting
Video by Darwina Mohd Daud