The Economic Wrap-Up session held in Sasana Kijang organised by the Performance and Management Delivery Unit (PEMANDU) recently featured Dato’ Sri Idris Jala, CEO of PEMANDU and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, fellow Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dato’ Sri Abdul Wahid Omar, and Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamad, Minister of International Trade and Industry.
The session brought home the point that while Malaysia’s economy was in good shape throughout 2014, several areas still remain to be improved before the nation can fulfil its aspiration of becoming a high-income developed country by 2020.
Dato’ Sri Mustapa, in his concluding remarks, reminded the audience that everyone needed to work together in order to make 2015 a success, as it would most likely turn out to be a challenging year.
The way forward for Malaysia
Dato’ Sri Idris reiterated the need to remain focused on completing existing projects and not to keep brainstorming new ones. “If we want to do something new every year, there is something very wrong,” he emphasised.
However, there is also a need for the government to remain flexible while remaining true to its commitments. He cited the swift revisions to Budget 2015 as a result of the rapid drop in world oil prices, while nonetheless ensuring that it was not a knee-jerk reaction.
During the panel discussion following the presentations, Dato’ Sri Idris clarified that the government listened to all parties and implemented the best ideas presented regardless of source.
“At one point, we held open days in KL, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, and after one of them, a member of the Opposition parties came up to me and told me that many of the ideas put forth were items he had been proposing for years,” he recalled. “So it is good to see that we agreed on what the right things were and to see them through.”
One of the projects for the Greater KL NKEA was the pursuit of making it greener via the MRT & Circle Line (MRT Line 3) projects, which aims to have 40% of the estimated 10 million people residing in Greater KL by 2020 to use urban public transport, as well as rehabilitating rivers within the area at least to Class 2A (the second highest-quality level).
Meanwhile, Dato’ Sri Wahid saw Malaysia’s future as one which is moving from a capital-based economy to a people-based economy, which explains the Eleventh Malaysia Plan’s focus on building up human capital expertise.
He also sees a move towards the reduction of central planning and centralisation of authority, enabling local government to respond more quickly and efficiently to issues as they arise.
Beyond Malaysia
With Malaysia holding the chairmanship of ASEAN this year, and with the deadline of the full realisation of the ASEAN Economic Community this year, Dato’ Sri Idris foresees the 10 different countries coming closer together in order to improve the ease of doing business with each other.
“We are proposing to the other ASEAN countries that they each select 10 local companies of varying sizes that would like to expand overseas, making the ‘ASEAN 100’, and holding meetings with these companies in every country to iron out any particular wrinkles there may be in their creating subsidiaries there,” he clarified.
Dato’ Sri Mustapa pointed out that ‘Brand Malaysia’ is actually very strong, but required a lot of promotion in order to strengthen it, especially in the South-South context.
“We need to tell people why Malaysia is an ideal location; highly-skilled and friendly workforce, pro-business environment, and so on,” he said.
The session brought home the point that while Malaysia’s economy was in good shape throughout 2014, several areas still remain to be improved before the nation can fulfil its aspiration of becoming a high-income developed country by 2020.
Dato’ Sri Mustapa, in his concluding remarks, reminded the audience that everyone needed to work together in order to make 2015 a success, as it would most likely turn out to be a challenging year.
The way forward for Malaysia
Dato’ Sri Idris reiterated the need to remain focused on completing existing projects and not to keep brainstorming new ones. “If we want to do something new every year, there is something very wrong,” he emphasised.
However, there is also a need for the government to remain flexible while remaining true to its commitments. He cited the swift revisions to Budget 2015 as a result of the rapid drop in world oil prices, while nonetheless ensuring that it was not a knee-jerk reaction.
During the panel discussion following the presentations, Dato’ Sri Idris clarified that the government listened to all parties and implemented the best ideas presented regardless of source.
“At one point, we held open days in KL, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, and after one of them, a member of the Opposition parties came up to me and told me that many of the ideas put forth were items he had been proposing for years,” he recalled. “So it is good to see that we agreed on what the right things were and to see them through.”
One of the projects for the Greater KL NKEA was the pursuit of making it greener via the MRT & Circle Line (MRT Line 3) projects, which aims to have 40% of the estimated 10 million people residing in Greater KL by 2020 to use urban public transport, as well as rehabilitating rivers within the area at least to Class 2A (the second highest-quality level).
Meanwhile, Dato’ Sri Wahid saw Malaysia’s future as one which is moving from a capital-based economy to a people-based economy, which explains the Eleventh Malaysia Plan’s focus on building up human capital expertise.
He also sees a move towards the reduction of central planning and centralisation of authority, enabling local government to respond more quickly and efficiently to issues as they arise.
Beyond Malaysia
With Malaysia holding the chairmanship of ASEAN this year, and with the deadline of the full realisation of the ASEAN Economic Community this year, Dato’ Sri Idris foresees the 10 different countries coming closer together in order to improve the ease of doing business with each other.
“We are proposing to the other ASEAN countries that they each select 10 local companies of varying sizes that would like to expand overseas, making the ‘ASEAN 100’, and holding meetings with these companies in every country to iron out any particular wrinkles there may be in their creating subsidiaries there,” he clarified.
Dato’ Sri Mustapa pointed out that ‘Brand Malaysia’ is actually very strong, but required a lot of promotion in order to strengthen it, especially in the South-South context.
“We need to tell people why Malaysia is an ideal location; highly-skilled and friendly workforce, pro-business environment, and so on,” he said.
