Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has hit out at Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed for “politicising and attacking him personally” for raising the issue of dropping investment referrals to Penang from the federal government.

Lim said he was not interested in politicising the issue, for investment is too important to be used as fodder for personal attacks, regardless of political affiliation.

If an investment is good for Malaysia or Penang, it would benefit all, including the respective states, Lim said.

He explained that when he told the media that the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) had lost interest in Penang, he meant that the numbers of referrals by the national investment body to the state government, via its investment arm InvestPenang, have reduced substantially (by more than 50 percent) since 2011.

Lim provided statistics from InvestPenang that showed new potential investors referred to the state by Mida have dropped from 26 in 2011 to 24 (2012), 14 (2013) and only two referrals from January to September this year.

New potential investors referred by InvestPenang to Mida were at 17 in 2013 and 13 from January to September this year, he added.

As for Mida-approved investments, figures show that the target (key performance index) for 2010 was RM4 billion, RM6 billion (2011), RM4 billion (2013) and RM4 billion (for January to May this year).

The total achieved for the respective years - which show a drop in figures - are RM12.2 billion (2010), RM9.1 billion (2011), RM2.5 billion (2012), RM3.9 billion (2013) and RM3.1 billion (from Jan to May).

'Comment is based on facts'

“I made the comment based on facts. Perhaps Mustapa is privy to other information. If that is the case, please share the data you have and I will stand corrected,” Lim said at a press conference today.

“Perhaps he is not aware of the actual situation here. We are willing to show him,” he added.

Lim said he will eventually be meeting with Mustapa or Mida officers to share the facts on investment referrals to InvestPenang.

“I am not interested in polemics and will not be responding with personal attacks as he has,” Lim said.

"We hope Penang will not be punished and bullied for telling the truth."

Lim was responding to Mustapa’s statement that Lim’s comment that the federal government and Mida have stopped introducing investors to Penang was “preposterous and irresponsible”.

Mustapa said Lim’s allegation was “unwarranted and uncalled for”, given the amount of efforts and resources that the government and Mida have put in over the years to promote Penang and facilitate investors to the state.

He added that Lim’s remarks undermined Mida and his efforts in promoting Malaysia, and urged the chief minister to show proof of his allegations.

“Lim should ask InvestPenang and the companies in the state to provide feedback, whether it is fair for him to make such blatant remarks,” Mustapa said in a statement to the media.

“I am sad and disappointed that a chief minister uses such cheap publicity to promote himself,” the minister added.

However, Lim questioned Mida’s investment, which he added, was information that is not forthcoming.

On a question regarding occasional international trips where state government officials take part in, together with Mida, Lim said “Penang was merely one of the participants, among others”.

“Interested investors will still go through Mida.”

On the same note, Lim pointed out that only the state government and InvestPenang sell industrial land as no other agency does it.

“If Mida does not work with us, how to bring investment in? We are willing to cooperate but it is really alarming to see the figures for referrals dropping precipitously,” he added.