PENANG, Nov 7 – The federal government is frustrated with the Penang state government for not cooperating with federal agencies, especially in approving planned projects.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, said his office received complaints from several agencies about the uncooperative attitude of the state government when it came to land development in the state.
“The Federal Government Action Council for Penang always gets complaints from federal agencies, especially relating to land approval, and this is not good as it affects planned development,” he told reporters after officiating the council meeting here today.
He said among agencies that faced problems was the Penang Regional Development Authority (Perda) which complained that its application to change its conditions for use of the authority’s land did not get any response from the state government although it was submitted a long time ago.
“Perda had made the application to develop several lots of land but there was no response from the state government and this hinders development for the benefit of rural folks,” he said.
Nor Mohamed said the state government should give equal and fair treatment to all agencies regardless whether they are federal, state or private agencies.
He said delays in approval led to various effects, among them being stunting planned development for targeted groups and leading to escalated costs.
In that regard, he hoped the Penang state government would give due consideration to agencies involved including Perda.
“If the state government does not want to cooperate with the federal government, in other matters the federal government may not want to cooperate with the state government and this will not benefit both,” he said.
In another development, Nor Mohamed said the Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) in the Prime Minister’s Department had been given new impetus to ensure that all development projects proceeded according to schedule.
“At one time the ICU only acted as a trouble shooter for projects that could not be implemented to plan but later its role was reduced to monitoring as many other agencies were involved.
“However, recently the prime minister has said the ICU needed to play its old role, including making urgent decisions on problem projects. The ICU needs to solve problems, make decisions and ensure projects take off,” he said.
He also said the federal government would allocate sufficient funds for the construction of the Penang Sentral Integrated Transport Hub in Butterworth under the 10th Malaysia Plan.
Recently, the executive director of the Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB), Datuk Ahmad Zaki Zahid, was reported as saying the company was awaiting federal government allocation to start work on the hub.
According to him, construction of the transportation and logistics hub needed funding from the federal government as it was a public utility project while MRCB and a few other investors would jointly develop the commercial area. – Bernama
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
