Here’s what the Penang Gerakan Chairman, who once were in a race to be the Penang Chief Minister before having their embarrassing asses “whoopped” by the DAP in the 12th General Election, said in a recent news:
Meanwhile, Teng, quoting MIDA’s statistics, said Penang received RM1.67 billion investment as at the third quarter this year.
The number, he said was eight times lower as compared to the investment secured in the corresponding period last year, which was at RM10.15 billion.
To be fair, I think I should use the original figures provided by MIDA available here. I should also point out that the figures are for the months January to August. The last I checked, “as at the third quarter this year” meant from “as at January to September” this year.
The figure for 2008 was RM 10,156,301,413, and the figure as at August 2009 is RM 1,664,533,609. When the numbers are rounded up to the nearest billion with two decimal places, that’s RM 10.16 billion for 2008 and RM 1.66 billion for 2009. How Datuk Dr. Teng got the figures of RM 10.15 billion and RM 1.67 billion is beyond my understanding.
Next, dividing the 2008 figure by 2009 figure, we get 6.1 – which meant as at August 2009, the amount of investment in the field of Manufacturing that the State of Penang received was 6.1 times lower compared to the same period last year. Clearly, 6.1 ≠ 8.
Even if we used the figures by Datuk Dr. Teng, it still doesn’t make sense no matter how you look at it:
10.15 ÷ 1.67 = 6.08
1.67 × 8 = 13.3
10.15÷ 8 = 1.27
So, there you have it. Mathematics according to the former Penang Chief Minister aspirant, Datuk Dr. Teng Hock Nan.
