PENANG, March 11 (Bernama) -- The Penang Umno has described the claim by the opposition leaders that the state is now more prosperous compared to the time when it was under the Barisan Nasional (BN) as a rhetoric statement to confuse the people.

Deputy chairman of the State Umno Liaison Body Datuk Zainal Abidin Osman said the current prosperity enjoyed by Penang was due to the efforts of the federal government that had spent billions of ringgit to develop the state's infrastructure.

"The claim by opposition leaders such as Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng that Penang is more prosperous since the opposition pact ruled Penang is not based on actual facts.

"BN had developed Penang since the independence and provided prosperity to the people of the state under its five-year development plans," he told reporters here today.

He said this when refuting the claim by the opposition that Penang was more prosperous under their rule.

Zainal said that under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP), the federal government had allocated RM7.6 billion for the development of Penang and this did not include small projects worth millions of ringgit by the BN.