Results of Government’s effort to transform Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia in an international or cosmopolitan financial and trading hub. A nice RM220b have been already secured this year as committed investment with a high possibility of seeing more than 400,000 new jobs created by the wave of investment and a strong contribution to a consistent growth of the Malaysian GDP. As I always say, this is not the nest but has to be recognized as a good result that still leaves space for improvement. Here’s the article from The Sun Daily.
PUTRAJAYA (Dec 17, 2013): The Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) has attracted RM220 billion worth of investments within three years, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.
He said the committed investments are projected to contribute RM144 billion to gross national income (GNI), create 435,000 new jobs and generate a knock-on effect that will catalyse the larger universe of economic activities in the country.
“As we conclude 2013 and take stock of the three years of the country’s economic transformation, I am happy to announce that 195 projects have been launched under the National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs) since 2010,” he said in his speech at the ‘ETP in the Third Year of Implementation’ event yesterday.
He added that the government aims to attract 13 large multinationals to base their operations in Kuala Lumpur to support its pursuit to become the centre for global operations, services and trading.
“Six international trading companies, with a projected minimum of total turnover of US$600 million, will potentially establish their trading operations in the country. In the financial markets, we are set to see an increased value in new listings, with a targeted market capitalisation of RM18 billion,” he said.
Najib said GNI per capita has increased to US$9,928 last year and based on the current growth trajectory, it is on track to achieve high-income nation status by 2020, barring any major unforeseen disruptions.
“The global outlook continues to be uncertain as developed markets grapple with their challenges. Despite this, Malaysia is targeted to achieve between 5% to 5.5% gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2014, with private investment expected to grow 12.7% to RM153 billion,” he said.
Najib said investors have shown confidence in the Malaysian stock market as reflected by the FTSE-KLCI’s upward trend, hitting 66 historical highs in the last three years. On Dec 10, the market scaled another record high at 1,843.85 points.
As for the NKEAs, he said the overall key performance indicator (KPI) results show that it is on track with 89% achieved on average, while the Strategic Reform Initiatives recorded 85% of KPI achieved.
The NKEAs contributed 68.3% of total GNI for the first nine months of this year, or RM474 billion and resulted in 1.3 million new employments from 2010 to 2013 year-to-date, bringing the total employment to 13.66 million currently.
As at the third quarter of 2013, 69% or RM14.2 billion of the RM20.5 billion committed for the whole year has been realised. The rate of realisation of committed investments previously was 84% in 2011 and 88% in 2012.
“Despite the challenge of a slower global economic recovery, Malaysia’s real GDP grew from RM676.7 billion in 2010 to RM751.5 billion in 2012. This represents a significant increase of 11%. As of quarter three this year, GDP recorded a 5% increase year-on-year, outstripping forecasts. It is projected to hit 4.5% to 5% by year-end,” he said.
“We continue to slash back our fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP. From 6.6% in 2009, we will reach 4% this year and further reduce the deficit to 3% in 2015,” he added.
In addition, government revenue rose 14% to RM207 billion in 2012 from RM160 billion in 2010, and is projected to hit RM220 billion this year. Najib attributed the growth to a more efficient tax collection and the broadening of the tax base.
