GEORGE TOWN: The Penang government has participated in 11 trade missions abroad between 2018 and September this year.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said, following the participation in such trade missions, there has been overwhelming confidence by foreign investors towards the state government.
"Penang continues to remain as a leading investment destination and a main hub for global investors to expand their businesses here, either in the manufacturing or services sectors.
"Investors have also shown confidence in investing in Penang due to its leadership, which continuously focuses on strengthening the state's economic development," he said in response to a question by A. Kumaresan (PKR - Batu Uban), who had asked on the state's participation in trade missions abroad and their outcome.
Chow said the state had participated in the Medan Fair, Penang working visits to Dubai, Taiwan, the United States, Armenia, Turkiye, Poland and The Netherlands.
He said their participation in the Medan Fair in 2018, 2019 and 2023 culminated in the signing of memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Al-Haddad Malaysia and Al-Haddad Marketing Indonesia.
He said during the visit to Dubai in 2019, a MoU was signed between Penang International Halal Hub (PIHH), Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority (DAFZA) and Halal Trade and Marketing Centre (HTMC) to promote the halal industry.
"And during the visit to The Hague and Collection Centre Netherlands (CCNL) in March this year, The Netherlands government had handed over an agreement letter for the repatriation of skeletal remains to Malaysia. The skeletal remains have been abroad for 150 years.
"The Netherlands government will also fund an analysis on the dates of the 41 skeletons. The initiative is expected to save the federal and state governments about RM1.17 million.
"The scientific data obtained will be used as an important data for the skeletons when they are brought back later.
"With the repatriation, it can serve as a main factor for investments in future in the fields of research, education and tourism," he added.
As such, Chow said it was vital for the state government to participate in such missions abroad, which will benefit the state in the long run.
Last December, the New Straits Times reported that the Penang government was expecting the repatriation of several dozen skeletons, currently stored at the National Natuurhistorisch Museum in Leiden, Holland, to Malaysia, in the first quarter of 2024.
DutchNews.nl had reported that the skeletons, thought to be around 5,000 years old, were dug up by British archeologists in Penang between 1851 and 1934.
In total, they found 41, of which 37 are now in Leiden. The whereabouts of the others are unknown.
Malaysia has requested for their return.
In August last year, the NST also reported that researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) scored another major breakthrough five years after they found a prehistoric human skeleton, dubbed the "Penang Woman", believed to be at least 5,000 years old.
This time around, the same researchers had put a face to the Penang Woman using the Forensic Facial Approximation method.
The skeleton was found during the construction of a gallery for the Guar Kepah neolithic site in Kepala Batas in 2017.
With the help of Cicero Moraes, a 3D graphics expert from Brazil, they used the 3D virtual reconstruction method to create the Penang Woman's facial features based on a scientific date obtained from a CT scan performed on the skeleton.
The same team was also instrumental in reconstructing the facial features for the more than 10,000-years-old "Perak Man" using the same method last year.