KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has dropped out of the top six major contributing states to national gross domestic product (GDP) for the first time, says Parti Warisan's Justin Wong.
The Sri Tanjung assemblyman said the Malaysian GDP Report by state for 2024 issued by the Statistics Department indicates that Sabah has been edged out of the top six by Perak.
Wong said this in response to Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor's statements that GRS was not a failed state government as Sabah's economy had successfully recovered from the effects of Covid-19.
Hajiji had denied that GRS was a failed government on Sunday (Aug 24) while highlighting various successes under their Sabah Maju Jaya plans, including increasing state revenue to RM7bil during its five years in government.
"Why is Sabah out of the list of six major contributors to the national GDP for the first time in Sabah's history?" Wong said in a statement on Monday (Aug 25).
Wong said the drop was reflected in the statistics that showed it contributed 5.1% to the national GDP compared last year to 5.3% in 2023.
He added that Sabah's GDP contribution to the country continued to fall since GRS came into power; from 5.7% in 2021, 5.4% (2022), 5.3% (2023) and 5.1% (2024), resulting in Sabah's economic growth slowing to 1.1% compared to 3.7% in 2022.
Wong said the report also revealed the decline of several other sectors, such as agriculture, mining and quarrying.
"The benchmark for the rise or fall of the Sabah economy should be assessed as a whole through GDP statistics issued by the Statistics Department under the control of the Economy Ministry," he said.
The GDP value of RM85.6bil achieved by the Warisan-led state government in 2019 remains the highest to date compared to RM84.3bil (2024), he said, adding that GRS failed to achieve its projection of RM88.5bil GDP under Hala Tuju Sabah Maju Jaya 2021-2025.
He pointed out that of all the high-impact overseas investments spearheaded by GRS from 2021, only those by Kibing Group and SK Nexilis have borne fruit, which were achieved through the efforts of the International Trade and Industry Ministry.
Wong further said that state Finance Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun revealed that almost 90% of the State Government-linked companies suffered losses, with only SMJ Energy Berhad making a RM50mil dividend payout from its record revenue from crude oil sales.
"The people of Sabah need to know that all states in Malaysia have successfully recovered from the economic downturn in 2020 due to Covid-19, but Sabah still lags behind other states.
Wong said that Hajiji's announcement to the people that GRS had put Sabah's economy back on track was misleading based on the official government statistics.
"The biggest impact that we all do not realise is that Sabah is now no longer among the six major economic powerhouses of the country for the first time since the formation of Malaysia," he said, adding that it reflects the failure of the GRS government.
