The Malaysian government unveiled its 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP) on May 20, an ambitious five-year plan to transform the country into a developed nation, with strengthened national infrastructure among its main thrusts.
The plan, set to run from 2016 to 2020, “is the next critical step in our journey to become an advanced nation that is inclusive and sustainable,” said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at the launch of 11MP.
In his speech, Najib indicated his determination to push Malaysians to a better place as the nation moves into the final five-year stretch of attaining advanced nation status by 2020.
Najib’s speech emphasized education and innovation for the 2016-2020 period to put Malaysians on par with people in developed countries, according to a report by Bernama, Malaysia’s national news agency.
Under the Eleventh Plan which earmarks RM260 billion (US$72.4 billion) as development expenditure, Najib outlined numerous infrastructure projects that would take place, including 3,000 kilometers of paved roads constructed and 90,000 additional households being supplied with clean, treated water and 36,800 homes being supplied with electricity.
The 11MP will be implemented based on six core strategies and six drivers of change that are needed to achieve its objective by 2020.
The six strategies are inclusivity, prosperity of the people, human capital, green growth, infrastructure as well as innovation and productivity.
The six game changers outlined to ensure the success of all the strategies are to raise productivity, generate wealth through innovation, raise the percentage of the middle-income class, lay emphasis on education and technical training, implement green growth, and invest in urban areas that have the capacity to compete.
The government targets increasing the size of the middle-class group from 40% currently to 45% by the year 2020.
On human capital development, the plan intends to create 1.5 million new job opportunities, and introduce the National Salary Index as an indicator for employers in fixing the salary scale of workers based on productivity, skills, qualification, and expertise.
The government also announced an allocation of RM1 billion for the skills development fund to enable more students to receive skills and vocational education.
“Under the program, those who had undergone Technical and Vocational Training (TVET) have the opportunity to gain employment with a high income and value-added in such sectors as the oil and gas, aviation engineering, shipping and automotive,” Najib said.
The 11MP will work on further improvements to safety in Malaysia, with an emergency response time of eight minutes being eyed to reduce by 5% the annual crime index.
Additionally, it aims to improve universal access to healthcare, strengthen disaster risk management, improve food mitigation and enhance climate change adaptation as well as create green markets, increase the share of renewables in the energy mix, promote low-carbon mobility, and manage waste holistically.
Photo: Stefan Fussan
