Penang proposes city status for Seberang Perai Municipal Council

KUALA LUMPUR (July 2): The Penang government plans to apply to Putrajaya to upgrade the Seberang Perai Municipal Council (MPSP) to a city council.

According to a report by Bernama, chief minister Chow Kon Yeow (pictured) revealed that the state government had earlier wanted MPSP to be upgraded together with the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) as city councils.

However, owing to the federal government policy of limiting one city to a state, the Penang government submitted just one application for city status for MPPP, which it obtained in 2015.

"Since five, six years ago there was indeed such a restriction. Because of this restriction, we only applied for MPPP which ultimately obtained city status in 2015. MPSP had met the criteria for a city since 2008, but due to the policy we did not apply,” Chow told the media after the swearing in of 24 councillors for the July 2018 to December 2019 session in MPSP Building, Penang, reported Bernama.

"In view of the desire to see if the new federal government will revise the restriction, our officers will follow up with the ministry to determine the current situation."

Speaking to EdgeProp.my recently for our cover story, Chow said that the future of Penang lies in its mainland.

“I made a statement a few years back on the occasion of the swearing in of the Seberang Perai municipal councillor where I said the future of Penang is in Seberang Perai (the mainland). And the then chief minister concurred with me 100% because we understand that Penang [island] land development is close to optimum so the future lies with the mainland, which has great potential for growth.

“In the various development allocations, you can see that we give emphasis on Seberang Perai. It is actually 77% (mainland) against 23% (island) allocation for infrastructure and others.

“This is the state government’s position — that we want Seberang Perai to be given emphasis so that it can also offer opportunities for all categories of development,” Chow said.