GEORGE TOWN: The Penang Investment Tourism Office (PITO) in Singapore will be operational by the middle of this year.

Invest-in-Penang Berhad chairman of the executive committee Datuk Lee Kah Choon said the office will be located along Beach Road in Singapore.

Aimed to serve as a one-stop centre for tourism and investments from Singapore into Penang, Lee said at least one personnel will be based at the office for a start.

He said the office would start with a small operational budget, but is meant to be in service for a long term.

"We would like to use Singapore to reach out to the rest of the world, especially now with the impending opening of the Integrated Resort there.

"There is already a big pool of investors there and with tens of millions expected to converge with the opening of the resort, with the 80-odd flights per week from Penang to Singapore, we hope to divert some of them to come to Penang.

"Having an office in Singapore is also to tap its role as an important financial centre in Southeast Asia," Lee said at a media briefing.

Meanwhile, he added that another PITO office has also been set up at the lounge of the Palace of the Golden Horses in KLIA. It aimed to create more visibility for Penang as far as tourism and investments were concerned.

Closer to home in Penang, the small and medium enterprises market advisory, resources and training (SMART) centre to assist local SMEs in market access, business advisory, market information and resource, training and development would also be operational by the middle of this year, Lee said.

Lee said investPenang was also working hard towards realisation of projects which had been announced for Penang.

With only 70% of those announced had actually taken off, Lee said investPenang would see to the realisation of projects besides scrutinising the type of projects which come in.

"We want to do away with the figure game as many of the investments may not be capital intensive but much more value added, namely research and development and design and development projects.

"We are looking at much more tangible investments which may not be high in value but important for Penang to move up the value chain including those in the services sector," he said.

Lee said at least 60% of investments into Penang were from the services sector in the form of investments by hotels, schools and developers which was not reflected in the data of investments into Penang.