State Industry and Trade Committee deputy chairperson Wan Abdul Hakim Wan Mokhtar has refuted claims by PAS that the state leadership was the cause of high unemployment in the state.

Wan Abdul Hakim said the comments were unfair, as there were also external factors, including the fall in steel and oil prices in the world market, which had led to the situation.

"Due to the fall in prices of two major commodities in the world, more and more Terengganu employees, especially in Kemaman, were laid off, as the factories involved could no longer continue operating.

"This has caused the unemployment rate in Terengganu to be higher than the national rate for 2015 (four percent to 3.2 percent) and 2016 (4.2 percent to 3.4 percent)," he said.

Wan Abdul Hakim was commenting on a video broadcast by a Terengganu PAS state assemblyperson on a Facebook page, claiming that the unemployment rate in the state was the highest in the peninsula in 2016, and this was in contrast to the time PAS was leading the state government.

Commenting further, he said the drop in prices of steel and oil in recent years had led to thousands of workers losing their jobs due to factory closures, and that the government had tried its best to relocate the workers to other firms.

However, the Air Putih assemblyman said, the situation was expected to improve, now that the price of steel was on the rise, with more job opportunities expected this year.

Wan Abdul Hakim added that the statistics (on unemployment) should be seen more holistically, rather than from one angle alone.

"This is because the Median Household Income shows that the economy of the people in Terengganu, in terms of household income, had increased from RM3,777 in 2014, to RM4,694 in 2016, despite the various economic challenges during the period,” he said.

- Bernama