A sleeping giant awakens, but the politics of suspicion still weighs heavy — Ahmad Ibrahim
NOVEMBER 2 — The four states that make up the SG4—Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, and Perlis—have long be...
On November 2, the coalition's leadership of Malaysia's SG4 states—Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, and Perlis—gathered at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre for the SG4 Business and Economic Forum 2026 to promote their economic vision. The forum's keynote speech, read by adviser Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, framed SG4 as a "sleeping giant" with untapped potential if its component states joined forces economically.
However, the forum's findings revealed that SG4 still faces significant political tensions. Dr Mahathir emphasized that the states must avoid "retrieving and selling" rare earth elements and focus on value-added processing instead. He warned that shortcuts, corruption, and abandoning Islamic values had hindered Malay progress, particularly in their majority Malay Muslim populations.
The forum demonstrated a commitment to a cluster-based approach to regional integration, with each state focusing on specific economic priorities such as manufacturing, agriculture, education, and new resources. However, the forum lacked concrete details on implementation, such as human capital planning or regulatory streamlining, which are essential to attracting investors.
More critically, the political cohesion of SG4 is already strained. Recent political shifts in Perlis have raised doubts about the coalition's permanence, with PAS potentially stepping back from direct administration. A coalition of opposition-governed states seeking greater autonomy over resource revenues will likely be viewed with suspicion by the federal government, complicating investor confidence.
While the forum's emphasis on people-centred development and quality job creation is commendable, the gap between rhetoric and action remains substantial. Without a detailed human capital plan and commitments to skills training aligned with the industries SG4 aims to attract, the initiative's success remains uncertain. The forum did demonstrate that SG4 has a coherent economic narrative, but it failed to prove that its economic institutions can remain insulated from political cycles and adversarial federal relations.
The "sleeping giant" has stirred, but whether it awakens to become a productive economic zone depends on decisions beyond the scope of this forum.
Written by urgent.news from Malay Mail's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
