Terengganu: The Oldest Jawi Inscribed Stone and the Oil That Doesn't Show Up in State GDP

The two most famous things about Terengganu sit roughly 60 kilometres apart, and both are hard to see.

The first is a slab of stone at Kuala Berang, deep in inland Hulu Terengganu, carrying Jawi verses dated more than 700 years old. The second is out of sight entirely — an oil and gas platform on the floor of the South China Sea whose output, statistically, never enters this state’s GDP accounts.

This article explains both, along with the state’s official figures.

Key facts

Capital and administrative centre	Kuala Terengganu (Wisma Darul Iman)
Head of State	Sultan of Terengganu
Population (2025 estimate)	1,246,900
Land area	About 1,295,638.3 hectares
Coastline	225 km, from Besut in the north to Kemaman in the south
Borders	Kelantan (north and northwest), Pahang (south and southwest)
2025 GDP (2015 constant prices)	RM40.6 billion, growing 1.6 percent
Sources	DOSM; Official Portal of the Terengganu State Government

The Terengganu Inscribed Stone: earliest evidence of Jawi writing

The Terengganu Inscribed Stone is an inscribed stone bearing a ruler’s proclamation, written in the Malay language using the Arabic alphabet — that is, Jawi.

The Memory of the World nomination documentation submitted by Malaysia to UNESCO records the inscription as Malay writing in Jawi script, dated 702 Hijrah (1303 CE). UNESCO describes it as the earliest evidence of Jawi writing in the Islamic Malay world of Southeast Asia, and listed it in 2009 after nomination in 2008.

Its discovery site is Kuala Berang in Hulu Terengganu — the nomination documentation also records Kuala Berang as a maritime trading centre of that era. Standing there is the Inscribed Stone Memorial, a museum premises listed in the Department of Museums Malaysia’s directory. The original artefact is displayed in a gallery at the Terengganu State Museum in Bukit Losong, Kuala Terengganu, in the care of the Terengganu State Museum Board.

Why does it matter? Because it fixes a touchable date point on a major transition in the history of Malay writing — from India-derived script to Arabic-derived script. Everything written afterward in Jawi, from royal letters through to the Melaka Sultanate, stands behind that date.

An honesty note: public references give differing years of discovery, and the dating inscribed on the stone itself has long been the subject of academic debate. What can be verified against official sources is the discovery site at Kuala Berang, the date 702 Hijrah (1303 CE) as recorded in the UNESCO nomination documentation, and the Memory of the World listing in 2009. For detailed discovery records, the Terengganu State Museum is the proper reference.

Geography and administration

Terengganu sits on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, bordering Kelantan to the north and northwest and Pahang to the south and southwest. Its coastline runs 225 kilometres from Besut to Kemaman.

Kuala Terengganu received city status on 1 January 2008, branded as the “Waterfront Heritage City”. Its local administration began as a Town Board, became a Municipal Council in 1979, before being upgraded to a City Council.

DOSM’s 2025 district population estimates:

District	Population
Kuala Terengganu	248,400
Kemaman	235,000
Dungun	169,900
Besut	167,500
Kuala Nerus	157,500
Marang	128,800
Hulu Terengganu	74,800
Setiu	64,900

Of the 1,246,900 population, DOSM estimates 1,177,500 are Bumiputera Malay, 22,600 Chinese, 3,400 other Bumiputera, 2,000 Indian, and 39,000 non-citizens.

Royal institution

The Head of State of Terengganu is the Sultan of Terengganu. His official affairs are handled by the Office of His Royal Highness the Sultan of Terengganu, based at Istana Syarqiyyah, Kuala Terengganu, which maintains its own official portal.

The position of the Malay Rulers within the federal system is set out by the Federal Constitution. For full titles, protocol and official announcements, the portal of the Office of HRH the Sultan of Terengganu is the authoritative source; its homepage does not list his personal name, so do not rely on secondary sources for the title.

Economy: the oil that doesn’t show up in state GDP

This is the part most often misread.

Terengganu’s GDP in 2025 was RM40,596.6 million at 2015 constant prices, growing 1.6 percent. That is 2.3 percent of national GDP (RM1,737.0 billion) and places Terengganu 12th out of 16 states and Federal Territories.

Breakdown by sector, 2025:

Sector	Value (RM million)	Share
Services	21,499.1	53.0%
Manufacturing	14,456.8	35.6%
Agriculture	3,053.2	7.5%
Construction	1,290.5	3.2%
Mining and quarrying	233.3	0.6%

Mining and quarrying is only 0.6 percent. For an “oil state”, that figure looks impossible — until you know how DOSM counts it.

DOSM’s data catalogue explains that the “Supra” category is a residual category for GDP that cannot be attributed to any particular state, especially in the mining and quarrying sector. In 2025, Supra was worth RM43,257.4 million — and all of it is mining and quarrying. That value is larger than the whole of Terengganu’s GDP.

In other words: offshore petroleum production is not booked as Terengganu’s GDP. What is counted is onshore downstream activity — and that shows up as manufacturing, not mining. That is why manufacturing contributes more than a third of the state’s economy.

That downstream activity is centred at Kertih, Kemaman. PETRONAS Gas Berhad operates the Kertih and Santong (Paka) Gas Processing Plants, as well as the Kertih Utilities Plant within the Kertih Integrated Petrochemical Complex. The Peninsular Gas Utilisation pipeline network began at Kertih: PGU I has connected Kertih to Teluk Kalong over 32 kilometres since 1983, and the overall network now runs 2,675 kilometres. Full background on the national petroleum regime is in PETRONAS and the oil and gas sector.

State finances: where the money comes from

The Terengganu State Budget 2026 speech gives a clear picture.

• Operating Expenditure: RM1.938 billion, including a RM450 million contribution to the Development Fund
• State-generated revenue: RM288.59 million (RM85.36 million Tax Revenue, RM203.23 million Non-Tax Revenue)
• Non-Revenue Receipts: RM1.709 billion
• Total revenue: RM1.998 billion, a three percent surplus

Note the ratio. Revenue generated by the state itself is about 14 percent of total revenue; the rest comes from Non-Revenue Receipts.

The legal framework is the Petroleum Development Act 1974 (Act 144), assented to on 30 July 1974 and coming into force on 1 October 1974. Section 2 vests full ownership and the exclusive right to explore for and produce petroleum, whether onshore or offshore Malaysia, in a corporation — namely PETRONAS under section 3. Section 4 provides that, in consideration, the corporation shall make cash payments to the Federal Government and the Government of any relevant State in such amounts as agreed between the parties concerned. The Act does not fix a percentage rate.

Petroleum-related payments to Terengganu have been channelled as Wang Ihsan. A Ministry of Finance statement on 8 April 2024 reported the disbursement of RM172.3 million to the Terengganu State Government and RM58.6 million to Kelantan, plus an additional RM103.1 million to Terengganu for contractor obligations. The same statement stated that Wang Ihsan is not a Federal Government grant enshrined in law.

Where the state economy is heading

The 2026 Budget lists several officially trackable directions:

• Kemaman LNG regasification, and plans for partial working interest ownership in active oil and gas wells in Peninsular Malaysia
• Feasibility studies for a hydrogen and green ammonia plant, and a fertiliser factory
• Gong Badak Halal Park Industrial Area Extension
• Expansion of Kemaman Port, a spur line from the ECRL Chukai Station to Kemaman Port, and transit-oriented development around the ECRL station area
• Visit Terengganu Year 2027, with a dedicated secretariat established

The 2026 Development Expenditure allocation favours the social sector (RM323.80 million, 72.0 percent), followed by the economic sector (RM92.84 million, 20.6 percent) and administration (RM33.37 million, 7.4 percent). National macro context is in Malaysia’s GDP overview, and the tourism side in the tourism sector.

Common misconceptions

“Terengganu is among the richest states because of oil.” Its state GDP ranks 12th out of 16. Offshore petroleum value-add is not allocated to the state in state GDP accounts.

“A five percent oil royalty is fixed in Act 144.” Section 4 of Act 144 refers to cash payments “as agreed between the parties” — with no rate set in the statute.

“Wang Ihsan is the same as royalty.” The Ministry of Finance states that Wang Ihsan is not a grant enshrined in law. Do not use the two terms interchangeably in official work.

“Terengganu has seven districts.” The state portal still lists seven; DOSM reports eight, with Kuala Nerus. Confirm according to your intended use.

“The Inscribed Stone is kept at the National Museum.” It is at the Terengganu State Museum. The one at Kuala Berang is the discovery-site memorial.

What’s next

For current data, start with OpenDOSM for state-level GDP and population — both datasets are updated annually and downloadable as CSV. For state finances, the Terengganu State Budget speech is published on the state portal every November.

If your interest is on the heritage side, the Inscribed Stone Memorial at Kuala Berang and the Terengganu State Museum are two distinct stops and both are worthwhile. For the closely related East Coast state craft, see batik.

To compare state economic structures, Sarawak offers the most useful contrast: there, mining and quarrying does show up in state GDP, because most of its production can be allocated. Johor in turn shows a state economic model driven by manufacturing and border proximity.