SEBERANG PERAI, April 14 — The federal government has approved a RM200 million allocation to develop wakaf land in Penang, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced today.

He said Penang has a lot of unused wakaf land, some over 100 years old, that can be developed for the benefit of Muslims in the state.

He said this land could be developed for housing or commercial use instead of being left vacant.

"This will be the first matter for the revived Penang Bumiputra Development Council to take over,” he said during a press conference after meetings with the Penang state government and the Penang Bumiputra Development Council here.

He said the council was formed long ago and had been dormant in recent years.

Anwar said Tan Sri Khalid Ramli has been appointed as the new chairman of the Penang Implementation and Coordination Unit (ICU).

He said the Penang ICU and the council will need to work with the state government to increase the development of projects for Bumiputras in the state.

Meanwhile, he said there was also a discussion regarding the need to train tahfiz in Penang.

"Tahfiz need to be trained in other fields; otherwise, they might face difficulties in getting jobs,” he said.

He said tahfiz in Penang must be given TVET training, other than studying the Quran.

"We have allocated RM10 million to be channelled to the state government to plan programmes with private companies to train tahfiz,” he said.

He said this way, tahfiz will be able to get better job opportunities with TVET training.