PETALING JAYA: The Penang government, via Penang Institute, will commemorate Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu’s centenary birthday and the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) later this year with the launch of the book ‘Lim Chong Eu — From Free Port to Modern Economy: Economic Development and Social Change in Penang, 1969 to 1990’.
Lim, the second chief minister of Penang, was born a century ago on May 28, 1919.
“Tun Dr Lim was one of the most illustrious sons of Penang,” Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said today. “He attended the Penang Free School and subsequently obtained his degree in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland on a King’s Scholarship.
“He was elected as the second Penang Chief Minister during the first change of government in the state back in 1969 and for the next 21 years he was in power, brought much development to Penang. Tun Dr Lim retired from public office after the 1990 general election.”
In 1969, at the height of mass unemployment, Lim pioneered job-led growth through export-oriented industrialisation of Penang which provided many with jobs and upward mobility.
Half a century later, as Malaysia faces economic challenges as a result of the trade war between the US and China, Penang can take a leaf from the job-led growth strategy pursued by Lim and PDC 50 years ago, Chow added.
