When Chen Yulian arrived in Wenlai, Li Jianhui and Zhou Jiayi led Liu Xiaoyan, Wang Haichuan, Du Ningxue, Zhou Bingqian, Li Huidong, Wang Minliang and others to Penang.
As the R&D and production center of Malay automobiles, it is also the automobile manufacturing center of ASEAN. Although the development speed of Penang City, the capital of Penang state, cannot be compared with that of Johor Bahru in recent years, it is still at the forefront. Currently, it is the same as Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru in Malay.
Three major cities in Malay.
Penang was once the region with the highest proportion of Chinese. It was only due to the promotion of the Tung Wah Association in recent years that a large influx of Chinese from Johor Bahru and even Johor suppressed Penang.
Moreover, Penang is special compared to some states in that it is not the seat of the nine major families. There is only a state head here, not a sultan.
This time Li Jianhui led many senior officials to come here, firstly to expand the momentum of the Xinjian Clan, secondly to increase investment in Penang, and thirdly to visit the Penang Chinese family headed by Robert Kuok, who had returned to Penang from Xiangjiang.
In the afternoon of the same day, Li Jianhui and others, accompanied by Penang Governor Cao Zhian, visited the headquarters or production bases of Jade Lion Group, Penang Automobile Group, Luofu Automobile Group, Jaguar Automobile Group, Toyota Motor Group Nanhua Automobile Company, etc.
After several years of development, Penang has become the world's new automobile manufacturing center. Whether it is the real Detroit or Taoyuan, known as the Detroit of the East, they can no longer compare with Penang in terms of scale.
The automobile companies with their headquarters here include the famous Asian automobile company Jade Lion Group and the famous Nanyang automobile company Penang Automobile Group. Both of these groups belong to the Xinjian industry and are now independent enterprises.
In addition, this is the headquarters of Nanhua Motor Company, which is controlled by Sun Hung Club. It is also well-known in Nanyang.
What really makes Penang become an automobile manufacturing center is the joint ventures or wholly-owned automobile companies or production bases established by world-renowned automobile groups such as Luofu, Jaguar, Toyota, and Volkswagen here.
The automobile industry in Penang has developed rapidly in recent years, and its scale is also very large. Detroit, which has declined, and Taoyuan, which has just emerged, cannot compare with it.
Thinking back a few years ago, without the Jade Lion Group under the Tung Wah Association cooperating with the Penang City Government to establish the Penang Automobile Company, the automobile industry in Penang was almost blank.
However, in just a few years, there have been dozens of wholly-owned or joint venture automobile manufacturing companies, and hundreds of companies supporting automobile manufacturing, employing hundreds of thousands of people.
This is because the Tung Wah Association focuses on supporting the development of Johor, which not only has Johor Bahru, a financial center and a high-tech R&D and manufacturing center focusing on semiconductors, but also Nanshan City, a shipping, logistics and petrochemical center, and Xiangfei City, a textile and clothing industry center.
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This has led to the fact that the current economy has been suppressed by Johor and can only rank second among the thirteen states.
In the city rankings, because most of these automobile industries are not located in Penang City, where the capital is located, but are scattered in many counties and cities in Penang State, Penang City lags behind the municipality of Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru, the capital of Johor State.
This time, Li Jianhui led many senior officials from the Xinjian Department to come to Penang. In addition, Li Jianhui's second sister and her family recently moved to Penang. This also allowed Cao Zhian and the top officials of the state government to see the development of Penang and even Penang from a single industry to a diversified industry.
hope.
It must be said that the current Penang government is quite far-sighted. They have not been blinded by the current rapid development. They have been using the example of Detroit to remind themselves that Penzhou will never become the next Detroit.
And this requires a new pillar industry, or a pillar industry that can be comparable in scale to the automobile industry. The only one that can do this is the Donghua Association.
It’s a pity that the Xinjian Department is not only located in Penang. The home appliance industry is in Ipoh, the film and television Wenhua media industry is in Kuala Lumpur, financial electronics and semiconductors are in Johor Bahru, textiles and clothing are in Xiangfei City, petrochemicals and shipping are in Nansin, and shipbuilding and steel industries are in Nanshan.
The focus of Malacca and Penang is only on the automobile industry, which is doomed to fail the plans of Cao Zhian and others.
Although Cao Zhian mentioned that Johor Bahru is located at the southern tip of Malay and Penang is close to the northern tip of Malay, Penang can definitely be built into the center of northern Malay, especially the financial center and manufacturing center.
However, Li Jianhui still said that the current industrial layout of his company has been relatively complete, and there are currently no plans for new manufacturing industries to enter Binzhou.
However, Li Jianhui also said that he would actively build bridges for Penang to attract more companies from Hong Kong and Taiwan to invest in Penang to provide assistance for Penang’s economic development.
When talking about culture and education, Li Jianhui said that Xinjian Education Group will increase its investment in Penang.
As for higher education, Jade Lion Group plans to jointly build Binzhou Mechanical Engineering University with Penang Automobile Group and Jaguar Group. It will focus on automobile R&D and manufacturing for the time being and gradually expand to other mechanical equipment majors in the future.
At the same time, Li Jianhui also made a request, that is, this university should be like Nanlong University and focus on Chinese teaching in the future.
As a Chinese, Cao Zhian was happy to hear this, but said that he would refer the matter to the state assembly in the future. As long as the assembly did not object, there would be no problem at all.
During the meeting, Li Jianhui also mentioned the issue of Chinese immigrants to Penang, hoping that the Penang government would open the door to facilitate the immigration. At the same time, he also explained the policies issued by the Johor government a few days ago.
The expressions of the senior officials of the Penang state government present did not change much. They had obviously heard about this, so they were not surprised, and the following responses also confirmed this.
“As for the issue of moving to Penang, because Penang has developed rapidly in recent years, there has always been a relative shortage of employees, especially technical employees. Therefore, our state’s conditions are far more open than many states. Even Johor is difficult to compete with in this regard.
Let's compare ourselves.
This time, in order to attract a large number of foreign people to settle down, Johor has basically no threshold, which indeed surprises some of our states.
But we in Penang have never been far behind. In the past few days, we have also discussed adjusting the threshold for settling in Penang.
And it has been prepared to be submitted to the State Assembly, and it can be implemented only after the approval of the State Assembly. By then, our policy in this regard will be consistent with that of Johor. We also hope that Li Sheng and Tung Wah will treat Penang equally.
We know that Li Sheng plans to help Johor Bahru become an international metropolis, with the urban permanent population exceeding five million.
Penang, the capital of Penang state, does not have the ambition to become an international metropolis, but we also hope to become a world-renowned city.
Our state government has also formulated a plan, that is, within ten years, the permanent resident population of Penang City will exceed three million, and its economic strength will be second only to Johor Bahru.
Of course, the plan is just a plan. This requires not only population, but most importantly, enterprises. I hope the Donghua Association can provide strong support in this regard."
Li Jianhui did not expect that the ambitions of Penang’s top officials were not small. You must know that because most of the automobile production bases are not in Penang City, the state capital, the permanent population of Penang City’s urban area is currently just over 800,000, not even one million.
, and now he actually proposes to reach three million within ten years. I really don’t know where the confidence comes from.
However, for the sake of his own plans, Li Jianhui did not speak out to attack these people. Instead, he stated that Tung Wah would increase its investment in Penang City in the future.