by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Monday, 3rd June 1991:
DAP calls on the Selangor State Government to set up a $50 million fund to give interest-free loans to help the 2,000 illegal factories to regularise and legalise their operation
The Selangor State Government has announced that it had identified more than 2,000 illegal factories in the state and those sited on private agricultural land would be given three months to either cease operation or apply to convert the land to industrial use.
Those illegally located on state agricultural land would get six months to demolish their factories and vacate the land.
Apart from factories dealing in dangerous or explosive materials in built-up areas, the State Government should be motivated by the objective of regularising and legalising the illegal factories, rather than to punish and penalise them.
The DAP calls on the Selangor State Government to set up a $50 million fund to provide interest-free loans to help the 2,000 illegal factories to regularise and legalise their operation, including the reducation of their factory sites.
This will be a recognition by the State that the small and medium industries play a significant role in the economic growth and employment ration in the state and country.
There is no doubt that one important reason why there are to many illegal factories is because of the bureaucratic red tape of the Federal and State Government.
The Federal government and State should set up a one-stop agency where the 2,000 illegal factories could be legalised and regularised without having to be pushed from pillar to post from one government department to another, and from one level of government to another.
The Selangor State Government committee set up after the Sungai Buloh fireworks factory explosion disaster had found in a preliminary study that there were 1,734 illegal factories sited on private agricultural land while 627 others were located on state land.
The committee classified the illegal factories into nine categories, out found none in the dangerous category.
This is the important question raised by the Sungai Buloh fireworks disaster-the sitting of dangerous or
explosive industries in populated areas.
If the study of the Selangor state government is correct, that there is no dangerous or explosive industry operating illegally, than the State Government should help all the 2,000 illegal factories to get regularised and legalised.
The State Government should also favourably consider the applications of those operating illegally on state land for the alienation of the state land to them.