Joshua Woo Sze Zeng



Joshua Woo Sze Zeng is a Malaysian politician from the Democratic Action Party (DAP). He was elected in the 15th Penang state election (August 12, 2023) as the State Assemblyman for Pulau Tikus, serving as a member of the Penang State Legislative Assembly. He is known for his advocacy of climate change adaptation projects such as Penang's Silicon Island and the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and multi-method flood mitigation.

Early life
Woo was born in Penang Adventist Hospital, Pulau Tikus, but moved to Bukit Mertajam when he was 2. He grew up in Taman Sri Rambai before he left the country to work in Hong Kong, Australia, and Singapore.

Education
Woo holds a Master of Sustainable Development Management from Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development, Sunway University. For his master thesis, Woo examined two megaproject cost forecasting approaches by evaluating development such as the London's Crossrail, the United Kingdom HS2 High Speed Rail, and Denmark's rail signalling programme.

Early career
Woo worked in Hong Kong, Australia, and Singapore for more than 13 years before returning to Malaysia in 2015.

Political career
Woo was invited to join DAP in April 2008 by Member of Parliament for Bukit Mertajam, Steven Sim Chee Keong. He relocated back to Penang from Singapore in 2015 to join Steven Sim as his special officer (2015 – 2016).

He served as the Secretary of DAP Jalan Tembikai branch and Bukit Mertajam DAP Youth Chief Bukit Mertajam. He was appointed a councillor in the Seberang Perai City Council from 2016 to 2018.

Subsequently, Woo worked at the DAP Penang headquarters (2018 – 2020) before joining the Penang Infrastructure Corporation with secondment as a Special Officer to Zairil Khir Johari, the Penang State Executive Councillor (EXCO) for Infrastructure, Transport, and Digital.

Participation in NGOs
Woo is the advisor of Generasi Penang, an NGO aimed to provide more opportunities for young Penangites to show their talents. He is also the founding member of the Sustainable Malaysia Association (SMA), an NGO aimed to advocate social, ecological and economic development.

Advocacy for sustainable development
In contrast to environmentalists who are anti-development, Woo advocates for balanced development that prioritises the triple bottom line of sustainability, which are the people, planet, and prosperity.

He perceives projects such as the reclamation of Silicon Island as example of sustainable development as it imposes strict mitigation measures through the social impact management plan and the PSR ecology off-set master plan that addresses concerns about fishermen's welfare and marine ecology.

Furthermore, land reclamation is recognised by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as an advanced strategy for addressing rising sea levels.