I REFER to the The Edge Financial Daily article by Ong Eu Soon "Please stop indiscriminate land conversion". I wish to draw to your attention that the law relating to foreshore land as stated in the National Land Code is upheld and is not affected by the conversion of PDC Heritage Hotel Sdn Bhd's (PHH) land to freehold status. Clearly, Ong Eu Soon was barking up the wrong tree and going off tangent in his baseless tirade against Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government.

This prime state land was sold to PHH by the previous administration with state agency Penang Development Corporation (PDC) owning only 49% with YTL Hotel & Properties (YTL H&P) taking 51%. To protect public interest, the present PR government had successfully increased PDC's stake in PHH to 50% to ensure that the private company can no longer own and control the land and the project.

Further, all costs of increasing the equity stake and land conversion fees of RM8.3 million are borne by YTL H&P, a boost to state revenues. Bear in mind that the freehold land is now owned 50-50 by the state agency PDC as a result of the successful intervention by the present state government as compared to the previous administration that "lost control" over this valuable state land.

Jeffrey Chew
Special investment officer to Penang chief minister (Manufacturing/Investment)