KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 — A total of 118 projects and 35 business opportunities worth RM500 billion that can generate up to 2.2 million jobs by 2020 have been identified by laboratories in the Najib administration’s push for a high-income nation.
It is understood the projects were formulated from the ongoing National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) labs run by the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) which will submit its full report cabinet at the end of July.
Pemandu 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).
According to documents made available to The Malaysian Insider, the NKEA Labs have identified 118 Entry Point Projects (EPPs) and 35 business opportunities with estimated annual gross national income contribution of approximately US$156 billion (RM500 billion) in 2020.
The preliminary estimate is that these 118 EPPs will be 80 per cent funded by private sector investment and can potentially open up 2.2 million job opportunities by 2020.
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.
The NKEA lab 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.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will be making his first visit to the NKEA labs later today and will meet with the lab members.
It is learnt that Pemandu will conduct NKEA Lab Open day for the public in August.
The ETP roadmap, which is expected to drive the country towards vision 2020, will be published at the fourth quarter of this year.
Pemandu had previously conducted National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) labs for the Government Transformation Programme (GTP). However recent revelation by Pemandu’s CEO Datuk Seri Idris Jala that country could risk bankruptcy has drawn heavy criticisms from Barisan Nasional leaders.
The Ministry of Finance also released its own report disputing findings made by Idris which was a major embarrassment for the minister charged with overseeing the administration’s key performance indicators (KPIs).
