PETALING JAYA, June 30 - Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib made his first visit to the National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) lab this morning and said he was convinced that their recommendations will help achieve his high income economy target

Najib told the lab participants after the visit that the recommendations from the project will be taken into account when drawing up the 2011 budget, scheduled to be tabled in October.

“It doesn’t matter if Malaysia doesn’t qualify into the World Cup. I just want Malaysia to turn into a high income economy by 2020,” said Najib.

“Judging from what I have noticed, I think that is more achievable,” he added.

Details of the NKEA labs recommendations however was not disclosed but will be presented to the public in August.

The NKEA labs are currently ongoing over a period of eight weeks between June and July and Pemandu has invited 425 lab members with 80 from government agencies and ministries, 18 from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and 327 from the private sector.

There are also currently 211 companies that have attended the labs including Shell, Exxon-Mobil, MYDIN, Sime Darby, Genting Plantations, Petronas, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Celcom, Ericsson, Maybank, Tesco, Sunway Medical Centre, Masterskill University College, The Body Shop, AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines, RapidKL and Digi Telecommunications.

“I can assure you, the government is deeply committed, we will make this happen with your support and commitment and with the rakyat support, we will achieve this massive transformation of Malaysia,” said Najib.

The Malaysian Insider had reported earlier that the NKEA labs have identified 18 projects and 35 business opportunities worth RM500 billion that can generate up to 2.2 million jobs by 2020.

Pemandu the government body responsible for the various transformation programmes has identified 12 NKEAs which include oil and gas, palm oil and related products, financial services, wholesale and retail, tourism, information and communications technology (ICT), education, electrical and electronics, business services, private healthcare, agriculture and Greater Kuala Lumpur revitalisation.

The government will be using recommendations from the NKEA labs to formulate initiatives to transform the nation into a high-income economy though it’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).

The Najib administration wants the private sector to be a critical partner and the key driver in the ETP, akin to the Malaysia Inc under Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s long rule.

The government also expects private sector’s participation in local projects to increase by more than 50 per cent so that country could reduce its expenditure and increase its economic reserve through subsidy rationalisation programmes.

The government wants private sector to undertake projects that normally done by the public sector such as the construction and management of schools and hospitals, according to the documents.