KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 – Puteri chief Datuk Zahida Zarik Khan is saddened reading the latest statistic about the unemployment rate in January 2021, which stood at 800,000 or 4.9 per cent, the highest rate since 1993.

She said this may not reflect the actual number as there is an unrecorded number of degree or college holders still trying to enter the job market.

“The government continues proving glossy picture, that RM106 billion Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) will offer 500,000 jobs to them.

“This has been criticized by world experts who have firmly stated that only a small amount of FDIs will be recorded by the country. This becomes even worse when there are various international factories that will close their operations such as Sony, Hyundai and Panasonic.

“Latest, the Silverstone tire factory will cease operation by middle of this year. Where are these 500,000 positive job opportunities come from?” she said in a Facebook posting. She also said valid information shows that new investments are moving to Indonesia such as Tesla, Amazon, Hyundai and others.

“Sad, really sad when thinking about the future of our children,” she said again, adding that the Minister of Finance is proud to state that the country’s economy will grow 6.5 per cent in 2021 after shrinking 6.8 per cent in 2020 and supported by world economic experts.

“Do they understand that after shrinking 6.8% in 2020, our ‘baseline’ is low at 93.2 per cent at the beginning of 2021. With an increase of 6.5 per cent in 2021, our economy will remain below the ‘level’ of 2019! Maybe, we will not grow at all,” she said.