Malaysia Believes It Will Be Developed Country By 2020

12 Jun 2013

Malaysia will achieve its goal of becoming a developed nation ahead of the 2020 schedule based on current projections, Prime Minister Najib Razak said yesterday.

“The Economic Transformation Program (ETP), which aims to transform Malaysia to developed status by 2020, is fully on track,” he said in his opening address at the 17th Asia Oil & Gas Conference 2013 in Kuala Lumpur.

“Based on current projections and barring unforeseen circumstances, we are set to achieve our development target ahead of schedule.”

He said the economy recorded a 5.6-per-cent growth last year, which also saw the government recording its highest revenue. He added that the country also experienced low unemployment and inflation, whereas interest rates were stable and investment saw a steady growth.

“These results reflect investor confidence in the government’s economic stewardship,” Najib said, adding that these healthy fundamentals were reinforced by recent international surveys.

Malaysia was touted as the 12th best country in the world to do business and the 15th most competitive economy internationally — according to the World Bank’s Doing Business Report and the Institute for Management Development business school respectively.

Following the recent general election, Najib had said that he aims to accelerate a US$444-billion (S$559-billion) plan in public and private outlays to help increase local consumer spending and make Malaysia more competitive against wealthier rivals such as South Korea and Singapore.

His spending program is a bid to drag Malaysia out of the so-called middle-income trap, which forces many emerging economies to compete with each other in producing cheap exports instead of developing more sophisticated, value-added products.

Mr Najib said a knowledge-based economy and skilled workforce are crucial in promoting economic competitiveness.

“As the world economy becomes more open and more closely connected, people and companies must have the skills and experience to compete with the best,” he said.

He also stressed that “further liberalization of the economy” was necessary to continue attracting investors, besides building up local companies that could compete internationally.

“We must do more to increase the participation of women in the workplace, to rationalize subsidies, and recognize excellence and high performance in our society,” he said.

“And as we shift our economy towards services, we must also work to ensure a more equitable and a more inclusive share in the nation’s prosperity for all our citizens.”

Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by just 4.1 per cent in the first quarter of the year, the slowest pace of growth since the third quarter of 2009 and lower than the 5.5-per-cent rate projected by economists.

Source: http://bikyanews.com/89174/malaysia-believes-it-will-be-developed-country-by-2020/