Green and Climate-Resilient Economic Recovery

Penang state government is preparing for economic recovery after the havoc wrought by Covid-19. The immediate concerns of the government are to provide social safeguards to citizens, secure jobs, and to ensure stable supplies of food and other essential goods.

For the medium and long term, the Government needs to introduce new growth strategies to deal with the immense economic disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the retreat of globalization as well as the polarisation of the global economy between the US and China.

The disruption caused by Covid-19 offers a glimpse of the future of unabated climate change where almost all aspects of the economic, social, and natural systems are under threat. Irregular weather events, sea-level rise, and hotter days will cause displacement of people, food and water shortage, the spread of vector-borne diseases, and severe loss of biodiversity, all at the same time. The Government should use this opportunity to reset the direction of growth to create a more climate-secure and resilient society for Penang.

As strategists work on how to revive Penang’s tourism, buttress the manufacturing sector, protect small businesses, attract new investments and build new infrastructure, PGC looks at how these can be steered towards the direction of sustainable development. We delve into specific issues to see how economic rejuvenation can accelerate Penang’s journey towards a green economy.