KUCHING, Aug 7: Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen has urged the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government to justify why Sarawak’s gross domestic product (GDP) contraction was below-par performance despite the huge injection of Sarawakku Sayang Special Assistance (BKSS) packages.
Referring to statistics issued by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), Chong said for the year 2020, the national GDP growth was at a contraction of 5.6 per cent while the State’s GDP registered a contraction of 7.1 per cent.
“This 7.1 per cent contraction in the Sarawak’s GDP is an equivalent of a reduction of a massive RM9.6 billion domestic production in Sarawak,” he said in a statement today.
Based on the same data, Sarawak is the third worst GDP contraction state in the country, after Sabah (9.5 per cent contraction) and Kuala Lumpur (7.5 per cent contraction).
Chong further mentioned that among the worst performing economic sectors for Sarawak were the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
“In 2020, the national GDP contraction for agriculture sector was 2.2 per cent but Sarawak recorded a 10 per cent contraction.
“As for the manufacturing sector, the national contraction was 2.6 per cent but Sarawak’s contraction was 8.6 per cent.
“This is notwithstanding the huge land mass for agriculture in Sarawak, GPS’s flight chartering programme to promote Sarawak’s agricultural product in Singapore and the numerous announcements of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Sarawak in the past few years,” he added.
Following this, Chong said the GPS government must give an account to Sarawakians on the reasons for such below-par performance and why despite the huge injection of fund under the BKSS programmes, the GDP contraction of Sarawak ranks third worst in Malaysia.
“As Sarawakians, we are entitled to know the reasons for such poor and below-par performance of the State,” he said. — DayakDaily
