Wednesday, February 10, 2010

November 21, 2009 22:12 PM

Penang Government Declassifies Minutes On Land Conversion

PULAU PINANG, 21 Nov (Bernama) -- The Penang state government on Saturday declassified the minutes of the the state exco, state land committee and the Penang Development Corporation meetings (PDC) relating to 1.4 heactares of land in Georgetown whose status was changed from leasehold to freehold.

The information, sent to the media via e-mail Saturday, however did not answer the question raised by the Pulau Betong state assemblyman, Muhammad Farid Saad, alleging lying by Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng in the state assembly sitting in August relating to land policy introduced by the state government.

Instead, in a statement, Lim accused the Barisan Nasional (BN) and UMNO of making vile and baseless accusations.

He said the PDC Heritage Hotel Sdn Bhd (PHH) was a joint-venture company between PDC (49 per cent) and YTL Hotels & Properties Sdn Bhd (YTL H&P) (51 per cent).

He said based on a letter from YTL Corporation on May 9, 2007, the former Penang Chief Minister had agreed in principle on January 18, 2007 to convert the land to freehold for PHH and on condition that the land was "for residence and business only".

He said the letter from PDC on July 17, 2007 asked PHH to make an application to convert the land to freehold.

Lim said the project was neglected and in an "abandoned" state since YTL forwarded a development plan on August 1, 2008 and this had attracted the attention of Unesco which inquired about the project given that the site was inside the Unesco heritage buffer zone.

"To revive the project to bring back progress as well as increasing returns for the government and the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP), I had negotiations with all parties including the developer YTL H&P, on the condition to not bring about loss to the people and the state government," he said.

He said the conversion to freehold status was approved and later ratified by the executive council on June 3, 2000 with there additional conditions for the benefit of the public and the state government.

Lim said the conditions were that the height of the building adhered to Unseco heritage guidelines and did not exceed five stories; all conversion costs and premium for freehold status must be borne by YTL H&P; and the raising of PDC's equity from 49 per cent to 50 per cent whereby that cost would also be paid fully by YTL H&P.

In that regard, Lim charged that Umno and Penang BN still used an old-fashioned attitude to gauge the performance of the opposition government.

Muhammad Farid had alleged that Lim had misled the state assembly when he said there had been no conversion of land status in the state from April 2008 till June 2009 but that there were reports saying that the state government had approved application for conversion from leasehold to freehold.

-- BERNAMA

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