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PENANG is celebrating Chinese New Year of the Ox as people begin to prepare for the worst – shorter work week and lost jobs are becoming more commonplace even as the federal government’s economic stimulus packages are being disbursed. Read here, here and here.
Over at Davos, where the 38th World Economic Forum is being held, the news is grim, with predictions from leaders like Bill Gates that the recession could last until at least 2013. Read here and here. That’s more bad news, especially for the developing world. Read here and here.
Local analysts, who seem to be holding back the bad news in view of CNY, have begun to pour out their thoughts: read here for Andrew Sheng, here for Lin See-Yan and here for P Gunasegaram. In view of these developments, Penang has again called on national leaders to approve the state’s request for a RM500 million allocation from the federal government. Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said that the allocation was imperative in order to jumpstart several programmes that would help Penangites. Read here for initial request and here for the second.
In addition, several measures are being taken for the state to help itself: - Improving regionalism: An aggressive approach is to be taken to promote the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) and make the grouping a viable option to boost the regional economy. Read here.
- Private-public sector cooperation: investPenang Chairman Datuk Lee Kah Choon has requested the cooperation of the private sector to weather the storm. Read here.
- More efficient public service delivery: In recent weeks, the state government has taken on errant and inefficient civil servants to ensure they worked harder for the state. Read here, here and here. Even jaga kereta boys are being pushed out to ensure jobs for legitimate workers -- with mixed reactions. Read here.
- Initiating George Town Inner City development plan: This is to help preserve and maintain the UNESCO World Heritage site in the long-term. Read here.
- Intiating a RM10-million grant for the Career Assistance and Training (CAT) centre: This is to help the unemployed in the state during the economic downturn. Read here.
We highlight below some of the other ongoing debates and issues in Penang:
POLITICS
CNY thaws UMNO-Gerakan relations, while PKR demands more prominent role in Penang: The Chinese New Year of the Ox seems to have brought a thaw to the somewhat uneasy relations between UMNO and Gerakan in Penang while Penang Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) has expressed dissatisfaction with the Penang state government including chief minister Lim Guan Eng for being sidelined and not consulted when important decisions were made. Read here and here.
TOURISM
My Second Home programme first class all the way, Snake Temple to shine again: Malaysia My Second Homers state hospitality, lower cost, affordable healthcare and food as their main reasons for choosing Penang. Read here. Meanwhile, tourists can look forward to a fully restored Snake Temple soon where specialists from China have been working hard to bring the temple back to its former glory. Read here.
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1. The Jetty and Penang Road: via Gat Lebuh China (a beautiful heritage street) – Lebuh China (perhaps develop a backdoor access to the Peranakan Museum in Church Street) – Steward Lane – Muntri Street (there should be no tourist activities along noisy dusty Chulia Street. Such activities should get relocated into that axis).
2. The “Civic Area” (Padang Kota Lama) and the “Shopping & Civic Centre” (KOMTAR): via Jln. Masjid Kapitan Keling (the Street of Harmony), or via Lebuh King – Lebuh Buckingham – Lebuh Campbell until Lebuh Cintra – Jln. Sg. Ujong with a safe pedestrian way connecting into KOMTAR and the bus terminal there.
These 2 major pedestrian links should be designed as a backbone system, giving the network a clear structure, which is easy to remember, especially for tourists. Busy roads should be avoided and whenever possible traffic free malls created. A situation like in Little India, where traffic is chasing tourists around between 2 rows of parking cars like a herd of stray cattle should be avoided.