IPOH: Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu says his biggest achievement is that he is still in office after helming the post almost a year ago.
"There was talk about me only holding on to the position for a short while.
"Then the opposition kept repeating during state assembly sittings that the Pakatan Harapan-led state government will collapse.
"However, the fact remains that the state government is still led by Pakatan, and that I am still the Mentri Besar," he told a press conference after witnessing a MoU signing between Scanda Sky and
Amal by Malaysia Airlines Berhad for the Kuala Lumpur- Ipoh- Guangzhou route at a hotel here Tuesday (May 7).
Ahmad Faizal added that efforts to stabilise the state government and developing the state required good cooperation between both civil servants and the leaders.
"We hope to attract as much foreign investment into the state, and we found that during the previous administration, illegal squatters, especially corporate squatters had been occupying state land for years.
"They had been operating huge pockets of farms, making profits for years, but no income coming to the state at all," he said, adding that a special committee to resolve the problems had been set up.
Ahmad Faizal said once the issue of illegal squatters was resolved, the state would be expecting more investments as well as job opportunities.
"Our manifesto to built 50,000 affordable homes in the next five years is also taking shape, because 34,000 such houses are either completed, or in the process of near completion," he added.
Ahmad Faizal said in the first six months after Pakatan took over the state government, they managed to table a surplus account of RM50mil for the state budget as opposed to the deficit budget by the previous Barisan Nasional led government.
"Our focus ahead is to earn extra income for the state, but all that are to be done in accordance with sustainability.
"Even if we allow mining activities, it must not be done at the expense of the environment," he added.
