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| Northern corridor to buzz with new activities |
| Business Times ,
1 March 2010 |
| By : Marina Emmanuel |
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THE relative silence and seemingly slow progress of activities in the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) are about to change soon, with more visibility and activities generating from the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) office in Penang.
From today, all its employees from chief executive officer Datuk Redza Rafiq to most of his senior and support staff operating from the authority's satellite office in Kuala Lumpur will call Penang home.
Prior to this, only about 20 NCIA employees were based in Penang, while the rest operated from the Kuala Lumpur office.
The beautifully restored heritage premises along Jalan Residensi housing the NCIA headquarters will be bustling with some 80 employees as of today.
The move was overdue and a welcome one, not only to Penang but also Kedah, Perlis and Perak which make up the NCER.
The NCIA has a small office in Kedah, while a satellite office for its manufacturing division is expected to open soon at the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone in Penang.
Apart from making economic sense to house all staff and bulk operations under one roof, the move is also logical as it will be more efficient to oversee projects for the northern states from closer proximity.
From a political standpoint, the federal government's commitment to continue pumping resources into Opposition-led states like Penang and Kedah to boost the NCER must be acknowleged.
The NCIA was set up under the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority Act 2008 (Act 687) as the authority responsible for providing direction and devising policies and strategies for socio-economic development in the NCER, which encompasses 21 districts in Kedah, Perak, Perlis and Penang.
Although there was great fanfare when the NCER was launched in 2008 with an ambitious blueprint, tangible signs of activities have been minimal and little impact seen on the population in the four states.
The manufacturig division of the NCIA has launched a Northern Corridor Industrial Technical Skills Enhancement Scheme in Kedah.
In Penang, it has teamed up with Universiti Sains Malaysia's commercial arm, Usains Holding Sdn Bhd, to set up a Centre of Excellence in the electrical and electronics field.
Tourism development activities have begun to take shape with the development of an integrated master plan for the Belum Temenggor tropical rainforest in Perak.
Efforts are in place to give Penang medical tourism players a boost soon and this move is expected to see economic spin-offs for the state and local businesses.
In keeping detractors at bay, regular media exposure of the many activities carried out by the NCIA should be a priority for Redza and his team from now.
The public should be made aware that the NCER is not only about activities which benefit some multinational corporations or limited to the setting up of luxury resorts in the economic corridor.
There should be better dissemination of information about the concrete efforts being made by the NCIA, for instance, its 'Edu-Citi-Tel' programme to nurture high-potential students from poor families to excel.
A mechanism to obtain public and industry feedback on the NCER's progress via the activities being carried out by the NCIA should also be considered.
Above all else, the move by Redza and his team to Penang should be seen to impart the message that the NCER is alive and kicking, and not an imagined blueprint which has yielded little or no output.
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