RM50 BOOST TO PENANG’S GOLD, JEWELLERY SECTOR

Five companies to invest in new cluster at Batu Kawan Industrial Park

AUDREY DERMAWAN GEORGE TOWN audreymd@nst.com.my

PENANG’S gold and jewellery industry is set to receive a major boost with the investment of nearly RM50 million in the new gold and jewellery cluster at the Batu Kawan Industrial Park (BKIP) in Penang.

Five goldsmith and jewellery manufacturing companies under the Penang Goldsmith Association will be the pioneer companies to set up presence at the 2.44ha site at BKIP.

The five companies are G2 Gold (M) Sdn Bhd, which will be investing RM24.6 million, Jin Huo Gold and Jewellery Industries (M) Sdn Bhd (RM12.5 million), TC Success Jewellery Sdn Bhd (RM6.8 million), TC Jewellery Sdn Bhd (RM2.9 million) and LKT Luck Sdn Bhd (RM2.8 million).

Penang Goldsmith Association adviser and immediate past chairman George Lo Siew Cheong said investments from the five companies would create nearly 700 job opportunities, which would include high-value professional goldsmith craftsman jobs.

The five companies are expected to commence con- struction by the second half of this year or the first half of next year pending approval from relevant authorities, and the facilities are expected to be completed within two to three years.

“The construction will feature state-of-the-art machinery and will utilise the water waste treatment, a new standard in jewellery manufacturing in the country.

“The setting up of the gold and jewellery cluster will further strengthen Penang’s position as a major gold finishing hub,” he said at a press briefing on the gold and jewellery cluster, here, yesterday. Present was at Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

Lim also witnessed the signing of a sales and purchase agreement between representatives of the five companies and Penang Development Corp (PDC) for industrial land of the gold and jewellery cluster at BKIP.

TC Jewellery was represented by its managing director Lo, LKT Luck by its director Tan Geng Seng, TC Success Jewellery by its director Lim Tong Kor, Jin Huo Gold and Jewellery Industries by its managing director Chiah Hock Yew and G2 Gold by its director Lim Teik Peng while the PDC by its general manager Datuk Rosli Jaafar.

The Penang gold and jewellery industry, Lo said, was almost two centuries old and the main contributor to the country’s gold and jewellery industry.

The setting up of the gold and jewellery cluster will further strengthen Penang’s position as a major gold finishing hub.