Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng says he will not be "matching" the 18-year tenure of his predecessor, Koh Tsu Koon of Gerakan.

However when asked if he would be giving up his post after two terms in power, Lim said "I did not say that".

"Let me focus on the work at hand, there is still a lot of work to do," he added, in a recent interview with several English language dailies at his office in Komtar on Friday.

"I don't know if I would be even able to get past this term. It has still a long way to go. But I won't be matching the tenure of Koh".

NONE Koh ( left ), the Gerakan president, was Penang's third chief minister, who assumed his post after Dr Lim Chong Eu in 1990.

Lim, who is in his second term as chief minister, said this when asked how long he would hold on to power in the light of the saying that "absolute power corrupts absolutely".

He was also asked on how he deals with personalities with business interests and was also told that the public is concerned over the perception that he may be "too friendly" with developers.

"This perception is nothing new. I know who supports me and who doesn't. In the 2008 elections, who dared support me? In the 2013 election, which developer dared to openly support me?" He asked.

When told that there is a perception that certain personalities with business interests like former Penang Chinese of Chamber president Tan Kok Ping seems to be getting favours due to his good relationship with him, Lim said such allegations were "unfair".

"He is not a developer. In relations to the illegal clearing of Bukit Relau by General Accomplishment, he is the director. It was done during the elections by the company, if he says he doesn't know what's going, no one would believe him," Lim explained.

"But he (the company) was charged in court. If it's during BN's time, he won't be charged," Lim suggested.

"When the RM30,000 fine was imposed on the company, we felt it was not severe enough, and we appealed," Lim said.

He denied having cronies, admitting that "everyone wants to be nice to the government of the day".

"That is expected because they all want to do business. But we don't have any cronies. How to have cronies when everything is done via open tender?" He asked.