Najib: Govt has met most goals

The New Straits Times

2012 REPORT CARD: Nation on track to become a high-income nation earlier than 2020

KUALA LUMPUR: PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said last night  the government has met the majority of its  goals under the National Transformation Programme, and is  on track to meet its goal of becoming a high-income nation earlier than 2020.

Announcing the results of the government's report card for last year in the form of the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and Government Transformation Plan (GTP), he said the achievements were proof of the government's dedication to the 1Malaysia philosophy of "People First, Performance Now".

He described ETP and GTP as "the bravest experiment undertaken by any government in the world to practise the principles of transparency and responsibility".

"The task to become a high-income nation by 2020 is ambitious, but attainable.

"With this transformation agenda, I am responsible for its success and am bound by its results.

"I want to help Malaysia realise its exceptional potential," he told the audience at Auditorium Perdana at Angkasapuri.

He said initiatives taken to boost the living standards of low-income households had lowered the poverty rate to 1.7 per cent last year from 3.8 per cent in 2009.

The income gap narrowed to 0.431 as per the Gini coefficient ratio (a measure of inequality of income or wealth) last year, compared with 0.441 in 2009.

A lower Gini coefficient ratio equates to a more equal distribution of wealth, with "0" corresponding to complete equality.

The country's per capita income last year, he said, stood at US$9,970 (RM31,131), compared with US$257 (RM802) in 1957, which is a 4,000 per cent leap in five decades.

In addition, the average household income last year stood at RM5,000, a jump from RM4,025 in 2009.

The construction of 35,000 new homes had also enabled more medium- and low-income families to own their own properties.

The efforts by the government had resulted in 99.9 per cent of households from the extreme poor category moving out of the bracket over the last three years.

"As part of our initiative to ensure that rural communities share in the country's progress, more than 3,300km of roads have been built, more than 1.4 million homes provided with clean water and 470,000 homes enjoy round-the-clock electricity supply."

 

The government's stand on the importance of early education, he said, had seen more than 2,000 preschool classes established, leading to a more than 80 per cent pre-school enrolment last year compared with 67 per cent the previous year.

Touching on the ETP, he said it had continued to meet its targets, with RM32 billion in investments secured via 39 projects last year.

"Since the ETP's launch in 2010, private investment has grown more than three-fold, recording a 22 per cent increase in 2012."

The ETP had since announced 149 projects, worth RM211 billion in investments, and is projected to add another RM136 billion to the gross national income and create 408,443 jobs.

He said in line with the government's stand on transparency, the results had been subject to review and verification by international experts on the International Performance Review Panel and auditing house PricewaterhouseCoopers Malaysia.

"What we have achieved, and failed to achieve, is on display for everyone to see."

Najib reiterated that the Barisan Nasional government was one that kept its promises.

"We place the people's wellbeing above all else.

"That is why before promising something to the people, we study it first as to whether it will benefit the people and not burden them, whether it is temporary or for the long term.

"Secondly, we ask ourselves, is this promise something we can keep? We do not make empty promises."