Opening Wang Kelian mall will boost town’s economy, say residents

PADANG BESAR: The community here has urged the state government to open the Wang Kelian shopping arcade soon in an effort to revive economic activities in the border town, after the free-flow zone between Malaysia and Thailand was abolished in 2015.

A resident, Zul Zalina Othman, 40, said he hoped the state government could expedite the process to allow shops to operate at the arcade, which has been completed for quite some time already.

“Earlier, we were told that the arcade would be opening in March. But nothing has happened since and we have not received any news after that,” the former day market trader told Bernama in an interview.

Zul Zalina hopes that the opening of the shopping arcade will help to create business for Wang Kelian again as this could provide additional income to locals, who are mostly farmers.

“It is also hoped that the arcade operator would not impose strict conditions on traders and allow them to sell products from (Thailand),” he said.

Another resident, Md Razak Md Daud, 64, was also confident that the local economy would improve when the shopping arcade begins operations as domestic and foreign tourists would be passing through the border town to get to Southern Thailand.

“These days during weekends we see several vehicles passing through Wang Kelian without stopping as there is nothing to attract tourists here,” he said.

Md Razak said tourists at Wang Kelian View Point often ask what attractions are available in Wang Kelian, which leaves him disheartened as he too was unsure about this.

Meanwhile, Perlis Forestry Department director Ag Shaffie Ag Ahmadni said the department has been given the responsibility to manage the Wang Kelian Arcade.

“We do want to open the Wang Kelian Arcade as soon as possible, but we are facing constraints in terms of the number of traders who are interested in setting up their business there.

“The department has advertised to get local traders to operate stalls there and we received encouraging response at first, but out of 32 business letters issued, only eight traders responded,” he said.

Ag Shaffie said he hoped the vacant lots would be taken up by Perlis natives soon so that the arcade could be opened.

He said it was learned that the traders wanted the same concept being practised in Padang Besar which is to allow them to sell Thai products.

“However, at Wang Kelian, it has been set that traders can only sell local products because we don’t the arcade to be dominated by foreign traders as local traders will lose out in the future.

“Besides, Perlis has several interesting products that have the potential to be developed,” he said.