Greater Penang Conurbation

George Town Conurbation
Metropolitan area
From top, clockwise: George Town CBD, aerial view of Perai, a clock tower in Sungai Petani, Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone, a clock tower at Parit Buntar, Kulim Hi-Tech Park
Country	Malaysia
State	Penang  Kedah  Perak
Core city	George Town
Largest city	Seberang Perai
Other major towns	Sungai Petani Kulim Bandar Baharu Yan Alor Pongsu Bagan Serai Bukit Merah Parit Buntar Selama
Area
• Total	3,759 km2 (1,451 sq mi)
Population  (2020)
• Total	2,844,214
• Density	760/km2 (2,000/sq mi)
Malaysian Standard Time)
Postcode	09xxx, 10xxx, 11xxx, 12xxx, 13xxx, 14xxx, 32xxx
Area codes	+604 (-2, -4, -5, -6 and -8) +605 (-7 and -8)

The Greater Penang Conurbation, also known as the George Town Conurbation,^[1][2][3] is the built-up urban or metropolitan area within and around the Malaysian state of Penang. Encompassing all of Penang, and parts of the neighbouring states of Kedah and Perak, the conurbation was home to over 2.84 million people as of 2020^[update], the second largest in the country after the Klang Valley.

As the capital city of Penang, George Town also forms the core city of the conurbation, which spans Seberang Perai, Sungai Petani, Kulim, Bandar Baharu, Yan, Alor Pongsu, Bagan Serai, Bukit Merah, Parit Buntar and Selama.^[4]

History

Originally founded as an entrepôt, George Town's diversified economy is powered by the twin major sectors of manufacturing and services. Penang's path to industrialisation began in the 1970s with the establishment of free industrial zones at Bayan Lepas and Perai. As Penang's industries rapidly scaled up the value chain, the border towns in neighbouring Kedah, specifically Sungai Petani and Kulim, also started to witness economic spillover resulting from agglomeration effects and the rise in the standard of living within the former.^[5] In 1996, the Kulim Hi-Tech Park was opened as an extension of Penang's electronics manufacturing industry.

However, interstate coordination in urban development was lacking, causing development policies to be disjointed while an urban sprawl radiated out of Penang's borders into Kedah and Perak. In the early 2000s, the Malaysian federal government began drafting the National Urbanisation Policy (NUP) and the National Physical Plan (NPP), in which the concept of a George Town Conurbation was borne out of the desire by policy planners to decentralise urban development in Peninsular Malaysia to four major metropolitan areas.^[6][7]

In the first NUP, formulated in 2006, the George Town Conurbation was defined as spanning all of Penang, Sungai Petani, Kulim, Parit Buntar and Bagan Serai.^[8] The National Physical Plan 2 (NPP-2), endorsed in 2010, demarcated the George Town Conurbation as stretching from Sungai Petani in the north to Kerian in the south.^[7]

In 2011, the then Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, announced plans to intensify infrastructure investment in Penang as part of a 'Greater Penang Masterplan'.^[9] The strained federal-state ties following the 2013 general election led the Barisan Nasional-controlled federal government to slash development expenditures in Penang, then an opposition state held by the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.^[10] This state of affairs continued until the 2018 general election, which saw the first regime change in Malaysian history that resulted in both the federal and the Penang state governments being helmed by the same coalition for the first time since 2008.

In 2021, the National Physical Plan 4 (NPP-4) provided a revised definition of the George Town Conurbation, which now includes Yan and Selama.^[4]

Definition

The George Town Conurbation spans the entirety of Penang, Kedah's southernmost municipalities of Sungai Petani, Kulim, Bandar Baharu and Yan, and towns in northern Perak, namely Alor Pongsu, Bagan Serai, Bukit Merah, Parit Buntar and Selama.^[4] This metropolitan area cumulatively covers 3,758.8 km² (1,451.3 sq mi) of the three states.

Butterworth

Port

Bukit Mertajam

Batu Kawan

Sungai Petani

Gurun

Kulim

Bandar Baharu

Kerian

Parit Buntar

Bagan Serai

Airport

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Local government areas within the George Town Conurbation