THIS year will mark the start of Malaysia’s journey towards achieving its goal of becoming a developed nation by 2030, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Speaking at the year’s first monthly assembly of the Prime Minister’s Department, he called on civil servants to not only make New Year resolutions for themselves but also for the country.

“Make a resolution for the country. A resolution that will make us on par with other developed nations of the world. If we work hard, we will achieve this goal.”

Dr Mahathir said he is confident that Malaysia can achieve developed nation status earlier than the 2030 deadline with hard work.

Dr Mahathir said the focus for the new year should on developing the country, so that the administration is not looked down for its inability to do so.

Calling on all parties to focus on the country instead of their personal interest, Dr Mahathir said their responsibility as civil servants is beyond just getting paid – it involved contributing towards nation building.

He reminded civil servants that the nation’s successes or failure very much depended on them and the ministers elected by the people.

“The co-operation between ministers and civil servants is very important and we have to put aside personal emotions to ensure that policies to develop the country are implemented successfully.

“Personal feelings are not as important as the country’s success. We know that the possibility of us achieving our goals is huge, but we just have to find out how we can do that, (and carve) our plans and strategies.”

He said there is a lot of work that has to be done by civil servants and ministers to realise the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 (SPV2030).

Reiterating the SPV2030’s objective of bridging disparity, Dr Mahathir said the people should also be receptive to the initiatives under the vision.

He said the poor should look at raising productivity to improve their standards of living and not just rely on government aid.

As for the rich, he said they should contribute to government coffers by paying their taxes responsibly, so development plans can be implemented. – January 6, 2020.