PONGGAL FESTIVAL CELEBRATIONS ORGANISED BY MICCI

SPEECH BY THE CHIEF MINISTER OF PENANG YAB TUAN CHOW KON YEOW FOR THE PONGGAL FESTIVAL CELEBRATIONS ORGANISED BY MICCI

 

16 January 2022

 

Dato’ N. Gobalakrishnan

President

Malaysian Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MICCI)

Dato’ S. Partiban

MICCI Deputy President

Dato’ SST. Muniandy
MICCI Vice President

Dato’ N. Vasantharajan
MICCI Immediate Past President

Dato’ V. Munusamy
MICCI Honorary Secretary

Mr. Patmanathen

MICCI Honorary Assistant Secretary

Dato’ M. Chandra Kumar

Honorary Treasurer

All members of the Chamber & Management Council

 

Friends from the Media

 

Ladies & Gentlemen

A very good evening and Happy Ponggal to all of you!

It is indeed a very happy occasion to meet all of you again after the Christmas ‘Food Basket’ giveaway not too long ago for the underprivileged. And now, we are gathered here again for a very important and popular Tamil festival.

Ponggal is a harvest festival celebrated by the Tamil people at the end of the harvest season. This festival is primarily celebrated to convey appreciation and thankfulness to the Sun as the primary energy source for agriculture and good harvests. It is one of the most important festivals celebrated by Tamil people throughout the world.

This festival marks the beginning of everything good not only for farmers but everyone in this world. It is believed that whatever we start in this period will lead us to a fruitful and prosperous future.

Ladies & Gentlemen,

Likewise, as we begin the year 2022 with much fanfare and joyful celebrations, this year is also a year of recovery and growth as our economy remains competitive despite 2 years of uncertainty. We have had positive growth in our exports which contributed the most to Malaysian total exports at 29 percent valued at RM198.2 billion from January to July 2021.

While the global economy faced uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Penang remained the location of choice for technology-intensive manufacturers to set up their factories. As many as 80 manufacturing projects were approved in Penang for the period of January to September 2021 with an investment value of RM2.9 billion. These projects are estimated to create 6,661 new job opportunities in Penang which will be a great boost to uplift the people’s livelihood.

This is certainly in line with what the State Government has set out to achieve when we launched the Penang2030 vision back in August 2018 because the upgrading of our economy must be in tandem with resulting better incomes for our workforce and this means more high-quality jobs must be available.    

Ladies & Gentlemen,

The Malaysian Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Penang has been continuously organizing celebrations and programmes for all communities every year during Hari Raya, Deepavali and Christmas. Regardless of ethnicity, culture or religion, I am confident Penangites respect each other's religious festivals and love celebrating together in solidarity. This is important for all of us to live in harmony and mutual respect in our beloved Malaysia's multiracial and multi-religious society.

Just like what’s being done by the Malaysian Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Penang, other NGOs and corporate bodies when we faced the worst period of the Covid-19 pandemic, we give a helping hand to those who are in need of assistance.

I hope this year’s Ponggal will bring more prosperity to all especially to all traders in Little India traders whose businesses had suffered during the lockdowns that took place on and off in the past 2 years.

Finally, I once again thank the Malaysian Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Penang for organizing and inviting me to your Ponggal celebration.

Thank you.