Penang to submit revised environmental management plan on its South Islands project in June, says exco

Published by Malay Mail• 24/05/2021• 06:43 pm

State Exco for Infrastructure and Transportation Zairil Khir Johari speaks to reporters at Komtar in George Town April 27, 2021. ― Picture by Sayuti Zainudin

GEORGE TOWN, May 24 — The Penang state government will be submitting a revised Environmental Management Plan (EMP) for the Penang South Islands (PSI) project to the Department of Environment (DoE) in June.

Penang infrastructure and transport committee chairman Zairil Khir Johari said the state had delivered the original EMP to the DoE on January 6.

“Having not received any response from the DoE, the application was withdrawn on May 7 for further fine-tuning to ensure compliance to the proposed mitigation measures and environmental offset programmes of the PSI,” he said in a statement today.

He explained this was why DoE’s statement on May 20 said the EMP was not submitted yet.

He said the state is fully committed to ensure that the PSI is designed to adhere to environmental, social and governance standards that are required by leading global multinational corporations.

“This will make the PSI a green and sustainable development which will attract the necessary foreign and domestic investment to generate jobs and inject capital into the Penang economy,” he said.

He stressed that the reclamation project is necessary as a recovery driver to reboot the state’s economy especially in the post-Covid-19 environment.

He added that the engagement between the state government and the DoE is a professional matter and not a political issue.

“Gerakan’s attempt to politicise the discussion reveals their desperation amidst the clear failings of the Federal Government to control the pandemic and vaccinate the population,” he said, referring to Gerakan deputy president Oh Tong Keong’s claim that the state had lied about submitting an EMP for the reclamation works.

Zairil said Oh’s statement was a desperate attempt to politicise the reclamation project and to divert attention away from Perikatan Nasional’s failure in managing the Covid-19 crisis.