MALAYSIA is well on track to achieving developed nation status by 2020.
It has also made good progress towards achieving high-income nation status as its gross national income (GNI) per capita last year came closer to the World Bank’s current high-income threshold by 20 per cent, from 33 per cent in 2010.
This was the result of the government’s initiatives implemented under the National Transformation Programme (NTP), which began in 2010, a year after it was launched.
According to the NTP Annual Report 2017 launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the country’s GNI per capita reached US$9,660 last year. The total GNI recorded last year stood at RM1.32 trillion.
The NTP’s seven National Key Result Areas (NKRAs), 12 National Key Economic Areas and five Strategic Reform Initiatives also delivered impressive results, recording Key Performance Indicators of 111 per cent, 109 per cent and 119 per cent respectively.
The report said RM1.8 trillion in investments was recorded between 2011 and last year, surpassing the initial NTP Roadmap target of RM1.4 trillion.
The Malaysian economy further demonstrated resilience and sustainability with the fiscal deficit reducing by more than half, from 6.7 per cent in 2009 to three per cent last year.
The report said Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth exceeded all projections, recording a growth of 5.9 per cent last year.
“The ratio of public debt to GDP, which was recorded at 51 per cent in 2017, also remains below the government’s self-imposed debt limit of 55 per cent.
“Additionally, the NTP has successfully returned the private sector as the engine of growth, with private investment accounting for 68 per cent of total investments in 2017, growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 10.5 per cent from 2010 to 2017,” it said.
The NTP also achieved significant strides in fostering inclusiveness in the economy, contributing to the decline in Malaysia’s poverty rate to 0.4 per cent in 2016, from 3.8 per cent in 2009, through programmes such as the 1Azam poverty eradication programme under the Raising Living Standards of Low-Income Households NKRA.
As at the end of last year, the report said, 1Azam had increased the overall income of 100,420 individuals, or 91 per cent of monitored participants, by at least RM300.
The report said 2.68 million jobs were created between 2011 and last year.
It said Malaysians experienced an increase in household income between 2009 and 2016.
“The mean monthly household income increased to RM6,958 in 2016 from RM4,025 in 2009, representing a compounded annual growth rate of 8.1 per cent.”
Significantly, the Bottom 40 income group recorded the highest growth in household income among all income strata, with mean monthly household income for the period 2009 to 2016 outpacing overall growth in income, rising 10.2 per cent to RM2,848 in 2016 from RM1,440 in 2009, the report said.
Going forward, the government said it remained committed to steering the country towards the completion of the transformation, now led by the Civil Service Delivery Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department, and into Malaysia’s next phase of growth, to be crystallised by Transformasi Nasional 2050.