PENANG wants to start a happiness index to see how happy the state’s people are with their lives and with the state government.

Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said this was to create an inspired population.

“We hope this index will be constructed and regular surveys can be done so that all the arms of the state government will have a better sense of how society is feeling.

“We cannot plan what an inspired population will achieve, but we know an inspired population is a happy and creative one.

“Once our people are inspired, they will inspire the nation and even the world,” he said at the launch of the Penang 2030 vision today.

A happiness index shows how well a nation or state is doing at achieving long, happy, and sustainable lives.

Chow also said there was no alternative to balanced development, stressing that the state’s clean and green policy would continue as the state developed and faced changes and new challenges.

“The managing of these changes must retain and improve the wonderful natural and cultural assets we have.

“A well-kept balance between economic growth and ecological protection can help make Penang the model state we all want it to remain,” he said.

Chow said Penang must continue to take advantage of and invest wisely and effectively in the new digital world.

Pledging that no part of Penang will be neglected, he said both the island and the mainland would be the smart state the government envisioned Penang to be over the next 10 years.

“The differences between the island and the mainland will be considered for their potential in our policy-making rather than as complications that need to be surmounted.” – August 29, 2018.