Belait Traders P Project Bleak Outlook In Nex Few Years
By Wani Abdul Gapar

Kuala Belait - Some shopkeepers in Belait district do not see any significant improvement in their businesses in the next few years, saying they blame the bleak outlook on cheap labour and people's weak purchasing power.

"The local economy is not as good as 10 years before. Buying power is not high mainly because of unstable jobs," Terry Teo, an optician in oil town Seria, told The Brunei Times yesterday.

"Nowadays foreign workers don't spend money here unlike before," he said. "These Thai and Bangladeshi labourers cannot afford to spend like the Malaysian workers."

The owner of Sight care Optician said that it is understandable that contractors hire cheaper labour but "it is minor things like this that make economic growth slow".

He added: "As long as people don't have regular jobs, they will not spend."

Asked how he sees the district's economy growing in the next five years, he said: "It will still be the same."

An upholstery specialist in Belait shares the bleak sentiment, owing to the rise in the cost of living.

"It's hard to say how the local market will be in the next few years," entrepreneur Ho Chuang Chui said in an interview.

"Granted, the market is not big, but with inflation, people tend to go to Miri to buy household goods and food," he added.

"I don't usually get new customers. It's hard to do so with the size of the market, so I do business with mostly regulars. Even bigger retail companies have it bad."

A jewellery shopkeeper in Kuala Belait believes that the decrease in sales also lies in today's shifting trends in consumer tastes.

"These days, people tend to go for hi-tech gadgets like expensive mobile phones and television sets. Previous generations preferred buying commodities like gold." -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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