there is also evidence of brain drain with an estimated malaysians working abroad in over half of whom had tertiary education in only of the regional population had achieved tertiary level education the economy has depended on importing labour from throughout malaysia as well as from other countries within the northern corridor economic region the state of penang has a better educated population than the other three states but in international comparison penang is a lowskilled region while there is a push to move to a highskill highwage economy penang remains dependent on lowskill industries and occupations