By Syed Azhar
Tuesday September 15, 2009
PLANS are in the pipeline to turn Gua Musang, a small railway town about 220km south of Kota Baru, into the second biggest town in Kelantan in an effort to bring in development to the southern part of the state.
Gua Musang has the potential to become a new and busy township bordered by Pahang to the south, Terengganu to the east, and Perak to the west.
Federal Development Department chairman Datuk Mustapa Mohamad, in a recent meeting held in Gua Musang, said Kota Baru, Tumpat, Pasir Mas and other surrounding areas within the northern section of the state were getting congested.
"We need to get people in the northern section of the state to migrate to the southern areas and the only way to do that is to create economic activities.
"I have given this task to South Kelantan Development Board (Kesedar) to come up with a master plan to be included in the Tenth Malaysia Plan.
"I believe that, based on the geographical location of Gua Musang, it can be turned into a progressive and developed town that can rival the capital, Kota Baru," he added.
Mustapa, who is also the International Trade and Industry Minister, added that the other factor that would help Gua Musang was that it was also the northern gateway to Taman Negara (National Park) which is situated in the southeastern part of the Gua Musang district.
The attractions of the untouched tropical rainforest can generate jobs for the locals and bring in tourist dollars.
The other major attraction in Gua Musang is a Buddhist temple in Pulai which is purportedly 400 years old.
Thousands of people from around the country visit the temple every year .
Mustapa said the 110km Lojing-Cameron Highlands main road linking Ipoh to Gua Musang was also important to attract people from the western regions of the country to either invest in Gua Musang or eke out a living there.
He also said that more efforts needed to be made to improve the basic infrastructure and amenities that could rival those in other busy districts like Kota Baru, Tumpat or Pasir Mas.
Mustapa also said that thousands of people had migrated to Gua Musang during the 80s and 90s after Felda and Felcra opened up thousands of hectares of land to plant palm oil.
However, the second generation of settlers has moved out of the land settlements and every time the commodity prices of palm oil dropped, they had to seek work elsewhere which resulted in the population dwindling.
This lack of economic activities has greatly slowed down development in Gua Musang.
"That will change in the next five years because funds and allocations will be channelled to Gua Musang as soon as the master plan is completed and accepted by the Federal Government," Mustapa added. -- The Star
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