GEORGE TOWN, Malaysia -- It is mostly cranes, earthmovers and rubble now, but the Penang Industrial Technology Park at Batu Kawan, on the northwest coast of peninsular Malaysia, will eventually become the region's next high-tech hub, if the enthusiasm of Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng is anything to go by.

"We call it the Fortune 500 road," said Lim, running a finger across a map showing the 24km Second Bridge linking Penang Island to the peninsula, and pointing out Batu Kawan, a 6,000-acre area that will be a hub for data storage companies SanDisk and Seagate, both headquartered in the U.S.