KEDAH The Kedah Barisan Nasional (BN) manifesto move to develop Jerlun as a hub for the oil and gas industry will be able to create thousands of job opportunities and raise the living standard of the local community in the area, which has been described as undeveloped.

Caretaker International Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Mukhriz Mahathir said the job opportunities were in line with the aspirations of the BN to raise the household income of the people in the area.

“What is important is not the number of job opportunities, but the quality of the job opportunities. We don’t want to give just RM300 to RM400 but we want the income to be in the thousands,” he told Bernama.

Mukhriz, who is the incumbent member of Parliament for Jerlun, will be contesting the Ayer Hitam state seat this time around in an effort to wrest the seat from PAS, which is fielding the incumbent state assemblyperson, Abd Ghani Ahmad.

Mukhriz had earlier raised the issue on the wide gap in the level of development between the Kubang Pasu parliamentary and the Jerlun parliamentary constituencies although both were located in the Kubang Pasu district.

The Kubang Pasu parliamentary constituency which was represented by his father, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad from 1974 until Dr Mahathir retired in 2003, was well developed although the Jerlun parliamentary constituency was lagging far behind due to the frequent changes in political representation.

Efforts to develop Jerlun as an oil and gas industry hub is seen as being capable of balancing the development between the two parliamentary constituencies.

Mukhriz, who is also the Kedah BN deputy chairperson, said the people of Kedah should be able to raise their capability and qualification to fill up the positions to be offered when the oil and gas hub was developed.

- Bernama