Lifted from another forum..
Who’s buying? Not Johor folk
By Shannon Teoh
The Malaysian Insider
JOHOR BARU, Jan 24 — It was the Sultan’s birthday two months ago and like most towns in Johor, Muar town was crowded with locals having a day out.
But the longest queue came out of the Maybank branch which was packed with Bangladeshis and Indonesians waiting to make withdrawals from the ATM.
Apart from food and beverage outlets, retail stores were strangely empty, save for groups of foreign workers.
In Johor Baru, the Islamic New Year a week later also saw the same scenario, except the foreigners in this case were missing, as Singaporeans were still at work south of the border.
Downtown JB is no longer the thriving retail hub it once was, forcing taxi drivers to queue for scraps.
Over this Chinese New Year, retail outlets in Johor Baru, as well as Kuala Lumpur, were also dominated by foreign workers as locals return to their hometown and leave city streets empty.
But business is slow enough in Johor’s capital that Qian Ru, a 17-year-old shopgirl, is working alone in an empty clothing store at the three-year-old Taman Sutera Utama retail hub here.
“I usually work with a partner but she is at a singing competition now,” she said.
Across the state, disposable income has dwindled as cost of living — already high in Johor Baru because of the influx of Singapore money — soared over the past three years.
State opposition leader Dr Boo Cheng Hau told The Malaysian Insider that according to the Johor economic planning unit, GDP per capita jumped by 12 per cent in 2010 but it glosses over a 12.5 per cent drop the year before.
“No one can help us anymore,” said Johor Small-Medium Enterprise Association president Teh Kee Sin, noting that the government cannot offer any more stimulus packages and Singapore tourists have been moving away from downtown JB.
“We’ve been relying on strong support from Singapore. That’s the retail market because there’s no more domestic demand,” he added.
Local businesses in the state capital been hit by the shift in Singapore tourists after the new Custom, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex and a direct route to the North-South Expressway from the Second Link in Tuas were built in 2008 and 2007 respectively.
The combination of the CIQ, which routes traffic from the Causeway around downtown JB, and the better connectivity of the Second Link resulted in the Causeway’s share as an entry point for tourist arrivals dropping from 82 per cent in 2007 to 64 per cent in 2008 while the Second Link’s share more than doubled to 29 per cent.
Money changers, which were once available at every street corner, have left the JB city centre, with those remaining saying business has dropped by more than half in the past few years.
Bo will deliver single plates from China now that bulk orders from retailers have dwindled.
According to Bo Song Chian, owner of Muar-based World-Trend Logistics, local retailers are also being hit by alternatives such as online purchases and the low cost of flying overseas to cheaper markets thanks to budget airlines such as AirAsia.
He told The Malaysian Insider 70 per cent of his business has shifted from local retailers ordering in bulk to locals ordering items online, increasing his delivery costs.
To describe the markup local retailers and logistics companies enjoyed, he pointed to a branded casing for Apple’s iPhone, which costs RM80 in the stores, but “only RM15 in China, so plus my transport fee of RM15, you can buy four and still save RM5.”
“If you order one plate from China also I will send. On top of that, I have to guarantee it will arrive in three days,” he said.
But the Barisan Nasional (BN) state government insists that the Iskandar Malaysia economic zone will flood the state with higher salaries and a thriving retail economy, including theme park Legoland which, Iskandar says, will create 5,000 jobs when it opens early this year.
Datuk Seri Najib Razak launched the Johor Premium Outlet in December last year, which the prime minister said will see three million shoppers per year visiting the 130 high-end stores.
“Legoland and the Premium Outlet will boost salaries. These are jobs locals are interested in rather than manual labour in plantations and factories,” Johor Baru MP Datuk Seri Shahrir Samad told The Malaysian Insider.
But concern from small businesses, other than those involved in property and construction, is that they will lose out from added competition.
Occupancy of shopping malls fell from 503,355 square metres in 2007 to 499,655 the next year, with 12 shopping complexes, including Sutera Mall opened in Taman Sutera Mall later that year, being planned to supply another 838,087 square metres of floor space.
“You know and I know and everyone knows nothing is happening in Iskandar. Now whatever happens, happens la,” said a top Iskandar official.
He added that although committed investment in the project, launched in 2006, has doubled to RM78 billion since 2008, “maybe just one-third is on the ground.”
Association chief Teh believes Iskandar may have in fact contributed to inflation, citing the hike in land prices to RM130 per square foot from RM30 in the new administrative centre Nusajaya since the development project first took off.
The RM1 billion Eastern Dispersal Link (EDL), a highway project under the Iskandar zone, is also set to hit pockets and businesses when Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB) starts charging all commuters using the Causeway in both directions early this year.
The Malaysian Insider reported that MRCB has proposed a RM9.10 toll in each direction for passenger vehicles using the EDL.
Shahrir had slammed the project owner for ignoring “the first and basic principle” of tolled roads by denying a free alternative route to commuters using the Causeway.
As Muar resident Ahmad Jimin told The Malaysian Insider before getting on his motorcycle, “the last Hari Raya, I could still buy new clothes. Next one? Who knows.”
