THE government today released a mid-term review of the five-year 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP) with focus on implementing good governance practices and policies.

While the bulk of the new developmental plan, which will run until 2020, is similar to previous targets, Pakatan Harapan has included a new item – reforming government and public service.

During a media briefing yesterday, Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali said previous Malaysia plans fell short of their targets because of leakages and corruption.

So, while the new government will introduce more incentives to spur research and development and improve the quality of the workforce and automation, a major part of 11MP will focus on governance.

One of the key strategies to strengthen governance and eradicate corruption is to empower Parliament by reintroducing the Parliamentary Service Act, which was repealed in 1992.

The law is aimed at instituting a select committee system and make agencies, such as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and Election Commission, answerable to Parliament.

The section on governance also aims to return more power to the states in the areas of public transport, social services and agricultural development.

The review noted the backwardness in states, such as Sabah, Sarawak, Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Perlis, and promised a more even distribution of development allocations to them.

Another key feature of the governance section is the promise to limit the terms of the prime minister, chief ministers and menteri besar.

According to Economic Affairs Ministry secretary-general Nik Azman Nik Abdul Majid, his team incorporated 57 out of 60 of PH’s election manifesto into the 11MP.

“Normally, the MTR is just a review of the past two years’ performance but due to the new government, we had to incorporate a new direction and emphasis,” Nik Azman said during yesterday’s media briefing.

GDP and expenditure revision

The review notably had a downward revision of the gross domestic product (GDP) from the original target of 5%-6%, to 4.5%-5.5%, in line with similar revisions by the World Bank recently.

Last week, Sudhir Shetty, chief economist of the East Asia and Pacific Region of the World Bank, said Malaysia is expected to experience slower growth in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

The World Bank slashed its forecast on Malaysia’s GDP growth this year to 4.9% from its earlier forecast of 5.4% in July.

The revision, said Shetty, was made mainly after taking into account the cancellation of major infrastructure projects, which translates into lower public investment, besides easing export growth.

In the mid-term review, private expenditure in Malaysia is projected to dip slightly to 6.6% from the original 7.2%, while public expenditure is targeted to plunge from 3.3% to 0.7%, thanks to the project cancellations.

On the export side, the MTR hopes to boost net exports past the RM100 billion mark from RM95.7 billion in 2017.

In line with its “New priorities and emphases” theme, the review also hopes to boost GNI per capita from RM41,093 to RM47,716 by the end of 2020.

The review notes a plan to improve worker income by boosting employee’s share of compensation to GDP from 35.2% (2017) to 38% in 2020.

Another major target for the new government is improving labour productivity from RM81,268 (2017) to RM88,450 (2020).

The other five policy pillars are enhancing inclusive development, balanced regional development, strengthening economic growth, green growth and empowering human capital. – October 18, 2018.