By Debra Chong(Themalaysianinsider) KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 — Penang's economy is wobbling.
One by one, the factories in Penang are extending their year-end shutdown period from one week to two, triggered by the slowdown in sales orders.
Salaries have been slashed. Work hours have been halved.
And some, like Vincent Lim, have been laid off.
The 34-year-old was the Penang branch manager for German company Siemens until he was given his marching orders in October.
It could not have come at a worst time. Lim's wife is expecting their third child and his eldest will be starting primary schooling next month.
"At this rate, I only can last until Chinese New Year," he said of the festival barely one month away.
Datuk Lee Kah Choon, the man handpicked by Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to head Penang's investment arm, told The Malaysian Insider that action is being taken to counter the state's wobbling industrial economy brought on by the global slowdown.
Guan Eng himself is leading the pack to woo new investors to open up shop in Penang and create more jobs for locals.
Several major players have already signed on.
Among them are the Nasdaq-listed National Instruments and NYSE-listed Honeywell International. Both have committed over RM400 million together to open R&D plants in Penang.
But Lee knows as well as anyone else that Penang is a land-scarce state and that its real assets are its people.
The state has set aside RM10 million of its own money to help people like Vincent Lim widen and sharpen their skills and migrate into other sectors where work is more readily available.
"I know it's peanuts, but we don't have enough money," said Lee, adding that the state revenue is not enough to cover the amount needed to carry out the retraining project.
"To give a perspective on the situation, the state revenue last year was RM300 million. That's the same amount the Penang General Hospital spends in a year," he said.
That is why, like US President-elect Barack Obama, Penang is asking the federal government for a RM500 million stimulus, spread out over the next five years, to carry out its planned economic reforms.
"Now is a good time for people to get retrained," remarked Lee, who is also director of the Penang Development Corporation.
He explained that during the slump, the programme was both a safety net to stop companies from retrenching their workers, as well as a booster shot.
Armed with extra know-how and skills, workers will be able to bounce back instantly once the economy recovers, he said.
He added that the retraining would also involve those in the service sector, which includes retraining hotel staff, tourism personnel and real estate agents to sell Penang as a destination of choice for holidays and as a second home for expatriates.
Lee is optimistic about the programme's success.
He is in talks with PDC's partners, including apex university Universiti Sains Malaysia and Khazanah Nasional, which is also the federal government's investment arm, to fund the retraining programme as part of their key performance index.
Lee said the state is also focusing on making Penang a environment conducive for investors to run their business by improving the infrastructure.
Despite the uncertainty over their future, the DAP-led government's efforts have helped reassure Penang folk.
"People say Penang will be hit hard, that this crisis will be worse than the previous one," said a worker from Agilent Technologies who asked not to be named.
"I'm happy Lim Guan Eng is our CM now. He is kind of transparent. He seems to be doing things for Penang. He certainly has helped boost our morale," she added.
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