Michel Van Crombrugge said local authorities should emulate what was being done in Kedah, where all approvals can be done in 10 months.
“For investors, time is money. Hence, the fast-track approval of development orders and building approval plans from state and municipal approvals is necessary.
“In Kedah, they can do this in 10 months under their “E10″ programme. In Penang, it takes much longer,” he said at the Penang Future Forward Summit hosted by the KSI Strategic Institute for Asia-Pacific today.
According to the Kedah government’s website, E10 is a fast-track process dealing with construction permits to ensure work can commence in a specified timeline without delays.
Van Crombrugge, who is the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (Micci) Penang and northern states chairman, said the E10 scheme ought to be emulated by the rest of the country.
He said the country should also look at what its neighbours are doing, citing Vietnam’s fast approvals to do business and attractive perks.
He said that with China reducing its dependency on the West, Malaysia could benefit from the trade war and capitalise on this, while staying neutral to Chinese and American interests in the country.
Van Crombrugge said the country also has to move from a zero-risk policy on Covid-19 in all sectors to an “acceptable health risk” to spur the economy.
On another matter, he said there was also a mismatch between curriculum and industry needs in terms of workers, with a high turnover of youths in manufacturing jobs.
Low salaries causing engineering talent bleed
Meanwhile, Malaysia Semiconductor Industry Association president Wong Siew Hai said it was hard to keep electronics engineers in the country as most Malaysians would go overseas in search of better pay.
He said another threat was the poaching of bright students in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) field by countries like Singapore, China and the US.
Wong said there were about 1,000 STEM students in the country and the government ought to keep them interested to stay on.
He said there was a “big war” for engineers, with many “taken from one company to another”.
Wong said that with local salaries in the engineering field too low compared to others in the region, these engineers might leave the country for greener pastures.
Universiti Sains Malaysia vice-chancellor Faisal Rafiq Mahamd Adikan said there was a lack of interest in STEM courses. Although the number of engineering-related seats had been increased from 80 to 120, the take-up on STEM programmes in USM remained low.