JALAN Banggol is no longer what it used to be. The five-minute walk between Kuala Terengganu’s main bus terminal and its largest and oldest market, Pasar Payang, was once packed with shops and five-foot peddlers.

Today, it resembles a deserted street as many shops have either closed down or were forced out. What’s left are a few electrical and hardware stores, a newsstand, a watch shop and a jewellery shop.

“Two issues killed our businesses here,” 61-year-old watchmaker Mohd Fauzi Mohd told The Malaysian Insight.

Pointing at the empty land in front of his shop, Mohd Fauzi said there used to be more shop houses there but they have been torn down by the state government.

“The government took back the land to sell to a property developer a few years back but that deal fell through. Since then, it’s been left empty and the shops are all gone,” said the proprietor of Kedai Jam Suria.

It was a similar story in Kuala Merang, a seaside village an hour away from Kuala Terengganu.

Handicraft and souvenir sellers claimed a new ferry terminal built by the Setiu District Council had killed off business.

“The ferry terminal and new shop lots were supposed to make life easier for us. Instead, we got development that did not make our lives better,” said stall owner Zaki Mat Nor, 61.

In Kuala Terengganu, watchmaker Mohd Fauzi said he used to record RM30,000 in sales a month. Now, he hardly takes in more than RM12,000.

“People don’t have money in their pockets any more. They come and browse more than they buy,” he added.

Mohd Fauzi, who has sold clocks and watches in Kuala Terengganu for 40 over years, said he finds it hard to maintain his shop and its four employees.

“After paying the rent and staff wages, I don’t have anything left for me,” said Mohd Fauzi, who learnt how to repair watches when he was 12.

The owner of Kedai Emas Zakaria, who only wanted to be identified as Muslim, said his 2017 sales has fallen by 50% too.

“The neighbouring businesses said they felt it last year but the gold shops were doing okay. But this year, many of the gold shops are experiencing a fall in sales,” said the young entrepreneur.

Muslim attributed the drop in business to the goods and services tax (GST).

“Many people buy gold for weddings and such. And there’s also a big group of people who buy gold as a form of savings. But with less disposable income, caused by higher cost of things, they don’t have money to buy gold anymore,” said Muslim.

One of the poorest states

Although Terengganu is one of the three largest producers for of oil and gas for Malaysia, it is also among the lowest in GDP per capita (10th in 2015) and slowest in GDP growth (2005-2015), and has the second highest poverty rate (15% in 2007).

And while the unemployment rate is just 4.2% in 2014 (national 2.9%) more than half of the labour in Terengganu is from outside.

Its second highest income earner, tourism, has recorded a steep decline in growth rates since 2015, going from 11.9% (2014) to just 4.74% in 2015. The drop could be traced to domestic tourists, which dropped from 16.5% (2014) to 3.15%.

According to data obtained from the state’s Economic Planning Unit, the latest Terengganu Transformation initiative, started under Mentri Besar Ahmad Rasif Abdul Rahman, aims to raise household income from RM4,816 (2014) to RM8,000 by 2020.

In Kuala Merang, businesses which depend on tourists taking ferries to Pulau Redang and Pulau Lang Tengah say they have not seen any drop in visitors to those two popular islands.

“We still get a lot of visitors from China and Europe. The holiday seasons for those two regions still bring lots of people,” said Roseila @ Ramlah Draman, who manages Zulaika Tours, which runs boat trips to the islands.

But what has rankled operators and shop owners is the Setiu District Council’s (MDS) new ferry terminal that replaced their old wooden jetties, said Md Isa Abd Rahman, who operates an overnight carpark for visitors.

When the terminal was complete at the end of 2014, not all the old ferry operators moved back in. Instead, some had decided to open up their own private jetties upriver.

This split the number of visitors between the ferry terminal and the private jetties. Although boat operators were largely unaffected, it hit the souvenir shops.

“I have been in business here for over 20 years. I built my own wooden stall where I sold clothes and drinks. I could sometimes make up to RM1,000 a day,” said Zaki, a stall owner.

When MDS demolished all the old wooden stalls, it replaced them with four blocks of brick shops, and individuals like Zaki received one unit.

“The first month I opened my stall I could only make RM10 a day. And I only made money that single day. I could not bear to open the stall and not have visitors. So I just closed it down,” Zaki said, adding he has not opened the stall since.

He still has bundles of new, unsold t-shirts he keeps in the stall and in his house.

“The main problem is because MDS refused to make sure all the old ferry operators moved back to the new terminal,” said Zaki.

“This has split the number of visitors to islands between the new terminal and the private jetties.”

Another problem is that island visitors are charged a marine park conservation fee at the new terminal of RM5 for Malaysians and RM30 for foreigners.

The private jetties don’t collect this fee. Boat operators such as Roseila said this was unfair as the money is for the conservation of the island’s famed coral reefs which benefits all visitors.

“This is the perfect example of the government coming in and ruining a good thing. They said they would make things better but they made them worse.” – August 28, 2017.