YB. R.S.N RAYER - A.D.U.N. SERI DELIMA, PENANG

GEORGE TOWN: The state government has ensured that each of the 728 hardcore poor families in the state has an income of at least RM500 per month.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state government had carried out a survey with Universiti Sains Malaysia on the actual number of hardcore families.

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GEORGE TOWN: The Penang Government has frozen operations of three quarries in central Seberang Prai to facilitate its investigations into the under-declaration of royalty by such establishments.

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THE 200-odd families living in temporary long houses in Rumah Hijau, Mak Mandin will be resettled in a new low-cost housing project in Ampang Jajar by the third quarter of the year.

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GEORGE TOWN: Penang’s famous Gurney Drive promenade now looks clean and neat, thanks to the efforts of over 400 people from all walks of life who came together to clean up the once dirty stretch yesterday.

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PENANG: The state government hopes that incoming Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak will mark a new era for the country.

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THE dirty stretch of beach along Penang’s famous Gurney Drive promenade will be a thing of the past with the launching of the ‘Brighter Penang Campaign’ by the state government this week.

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GEORGE TOWN: A labourer charged with causing the death of his four-month-old daughter by throwing her onto a mattress failed in his bid for bail.
Sessions Court Judge Rosilah Yop rejected Mohamad Nasir Sulaiman’s (pic) application for bail after hearing submissions by his counsel R.S.N. Rayer and DPP Tan Gin Han.

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GEORGE TOWN: A 49-year-old former bank clerk charged with sodomising a schoolboy two years ago was granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal by a Sessions Court here.
The request by both of Chew’s counsels R.S.N. Rayer and V. Parthipan for the court to discharge and acquit their client was rejected by the court.

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GEORGE TOWN: A High Court here halted the deportation of an 18-year-old Indonesian with Malaysian permanent resident status after his lawyer produced his birth certificate to show that he was born in Bukit Mertajam.
Counsel R.S.N. Rayer told the High Court yesterday that Mohd Dovi was not represented by counsel at the lower court and did not understand the nature of the charge and consequences of his plea at that time.

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OUT of the 2,623 job vacancies available through the Penang’s Career Assistance and Training (CAT) scheme, 441 applicants have already been linked to potential employers.
InvestPenang executive committee chairman Datuk Lee Kah Choon said as of Tuesday, a total of 732 people had already been re-gistered with the centre.

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GEORGE TOWN: Penang received RM10.2bil in investments last year that helped create 22,215 jobs, contrary to certain quarters who cast doubts on Penang’s ability to attract foreign investments, said Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

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GEORGE TOWN: The Penang state government is appalled with the accusations levelled against it by RapidPenang of not being helpful in allocating three sites to house another 200 buses which will arrive beginning May.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who welcomed Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamad Yaacop's statement on Sunday that he would discuss the matter with the Penang state government following RapidPenang's outburst, lambasted RapidPenang for going to the media before discussing the issue with the state government and exco members concerned first.

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THE Penang Government will start collecting data on Penangites aged 60 and above from May 1 for its proposed reward programme.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said senior citizens would need to fill up forms which could be obtained from assemblymen and MPs.
“We will decide on the rewards after we have pooled concrete data on our senior citizens.

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SOME 500 poor and squatter families will benefit from a Public Housing Project (PPR) which will be implemented for the first time in Penang’s southwest district.
The RM35mil project will be undertaken on a 4.2ha land next to the Puspakom premises in Teluk Kumbar.

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THE Penang Government has allocated RM230,000 to repair the five lifts at the Ampang Jajar flats in Butterworth which have malfunctioned due to vandalism.
State Town, Country Planning and Housing Committee chairman Wong Hon Wai said work to repair the lifts will start immediately and take about two weeks to be completed.

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KUALA LUMPUR: The opposition was less than happy with the RM60 billion second stimulus package.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Bagan) said the government should emulate neighbouring countries by directly giving money to the rakyat.
"To stimulate the economy, the government should give the money to Malaysians, like what Singapore, Taiwan and even Thailand are doing. For the next two years, things are going to get bad. We need to help the poor families in order for them to have money for their day to day life.
Currently, there is no direct financial aid to all Malay-sians," he said.

The DAP secretary-general also lamented that the government did not implement the opposition's suggestion for families with incomes less than RM6,000 to be given an annual aid of RM6,000.

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A TOTAL of 9,688 families have benefited from the Penang Welfare Department’s financial aid between February last year and last month.

Penang Health, Welfare, Caring Society and Environment Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh said the RM430 monthly income cut off point for hardcore poor households set by the Federal Government was low.

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THE Penang Government’s move to reward senior citizens aged 60 and above for their contributions to the state will help those affected by the economic slowdown.

Penang Senior Citizens Association president Lawrence Cheah said senior citizens appreciated the gesture. “The senior citizens have, and are still contributing to the state, and they deserve such a reward from the state government.

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GEORGE TOWN: A Penang Transport Council has been established to tackle the long standing transportation woes in the state.

In announcing this, Local Government and Traffic Management Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow said the council would be formalised in two weeks time, would look into the short, mid and long term action plans on how to improve transport problems and issues in the state.

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GEORGE TOWN: The Penang state government is setting up its own Penang economic action council (PEAC) to draw up strategies to counter the impact from the global economic downturn.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who held the first meeting of the PEAC on March 5, said the main objective was to be an advisory body and pro active party to help the state government during this downturn. "PEAC will help resolve problems and formulate short, medium and long term economic measures to ensure the stability of Penang's socio economic situation," Lim said at the launch of the PEAC.

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GEORGE TOWN: Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi set aside their ideological differences and shared a stage today to promote Penang as an international halal hub.

In his speech at the Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC) Penang branch and Penang International Halal Hub Sdn Bhd office at Komtar, Ahmad Zahid praised Lim for his efforts and commitment to propelling Penang as an international halal hub.

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THE five district officers dropped as Penang municipal councillors are being replaced by those who would better represent the people’s interests, said Penang Local Government and Traffic Management Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow.

“The new councillors are expected to represent the people better than the district officers who represent the government and are there (as councillors) by virtue of their position as district officers to give views on administrative issues,” he said yesterday.

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PENANG’S tourist arrivals saw a jump of 21.6% last year compared to 2007 and the numbers could have been higher if not for the global economic situation, said Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
“The state was the fourth most visited state in the country after Kuala Lumpur, Pahang and Sabah.
“We will be working harder this year to ensure foreign tourist arrivals will increase,” he told a press conference at his Komtar office recently.
According to hotel occupancy figures, over 6.3 million tourists arrived in Penang last year compared to over 5.1 million in 2007.

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PENANG Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng received a 67-page report on problems affecting the state from the Penang Forum of non- governmental organisations (NGOs) and like-minded individuals.
Lim had a one-hour meeting with the members representing 11 working groups after receiving the report at his office in Komtar recently.

In a statement, the group said the report also contained recommendations and solutions on these problems concerning the environment, labour, transport, social ills and heritage.

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PENANG is seeking the help of developers to refurbish the 100-odd unoccupied and dilapidated units at the Rifle Range flats.
State Town and Country Planning and Housing committee chairman Wong Hon Wai said a developer had recently refurbished five vacant units in Block J as part of the com-pany’s corporate social responsibility. “We hope the other developers will follow suit.

“Then we can rent out the units to the hardcore poor,” he said at a public exhibition on the usage of Pelangi Alternative Solution Adapter (Pasa) for fire hydrants at Ru Road in Bandar Baru Air Itam recently.

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KUANTAN: Only Terengganu and Penang have submitted their annual audited accounts to the National Audit Department.
States governments have until the end of April to do so.

Auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang said it was standard procedure for state governments to submit their audited accounts early in the year. “By right, all states should have submitted the reports to us. The delay can be perceived as inefficiency on the part of the state governments.

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GEORGE TOWN: The RM10bil investments approved for Penang last year will create several thousand jobs over the next couple of years.
“The investments will help mitigate the impact of the global recession on the state,” said investPenang executive committee chairman Datuk Lee Kah Choon.

He added that there were some 2,000 jobs presently available via investPenang.

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Some MNCs are committed to develop next generation chips

GEORGE TOWN: High-end research and development (R&D) and designing work related to chip making and read and write heads for hard disks are migrating to Penang at a time when multinational corporations (MNCs) are slashing jobs worldwide amidst a global recession.

Altera Corp, Intel Corp and Seagate Technology are among the MNCs that have invested in fresh R&D activities in Penang to develop the next generation 28-nanometre (NM) field programmable gate array (FPGA) chips, 45 NM and 32 NM chips, and a new range of read and write heads for hard disk drives.

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