Question

1. Recommend three economic strategies that you think is necessary to be incorporated in the 12 th
Malaysian Plan in order to build a competitive Malaysia regionally (or even globally).

2. Three Focus Area C of Modenising Agriculture in the 11 th Malaysia Plan is known as
follows.
 Agro-food and industrial commodity subsectors to transform and modernise into a high-
income and sustainable sector.
 Ensuring food security, improving productivity, increasing skills of farmers, fishermen,
and smallholders, enhancing support and delivery services, strengthening the supply
chain and ensuring compliance to international market requirements.
 Address the impact of climate change on sustainability of agricultural practices.
Discuss if these focus should be continued to modernize the agriculture sector in Malaysia.
Justify your answers accordingly.

3. Discuss three key challenges faced by Malaysia’s manufacturing sector to remain
competitive globally.

Answer 1

Malaysia 's economy has been transformed since 1970 from one based primarily on the export of raw materials (rubber and tin) to one that is among the strongest , most diversified , and fastest- growing in Southeast Asia.Primary production remains important: the country is a major producer and palm oil, exports considerable quantities of petroleum and natural gas , and is one of the world's largest sources of commercial hardwoods.Increasingly , however ,Malaysia has emphasized export-oriented manufacturing to fuel its economic growth.Using the comparative advantages of a relatively inexpensive but educated labour force,well-developed infrastructure ,political stability , and an undervalued currency,Malaysia has attracted considerable foreign investment , especially from Japan and Taiwan.

Since the early 1970s the government has championed a social and economic restructuring stratergy ,first known as the New Economic Policy (NEP) and later as the New Development Policy (NDP), that has sought to strike a balance between the goals of economic growth and the redistribution of wealth.The Malaysian economy has long been dominated by the country's Chinese and South Asian minorities.The goal of the NEP and the NDP has been to endow the Malays and other indigenous groups with greater economic opportunities and to develop their management and entrepreneurial skills .Official economy policy also has encouraged the private sector to assume a greater role in the restructuring process.A major component of this policy has been the privatization of many public-sector activities ,including the national railway ,airline, automobile manufacturer, telecommunications and electricity companies.

TWELTH MALASIA PLAN

Year 2020 marks the end of vision 2020 and the Eleventh Malasia Plan ,2016-2020 period.As a continuation , a post -2020 development plan with a clear strategic direction will be formulated to set the way forward for national development agenda along with the implementation framework over the next decade.This is to ensure an inclusive and meaningful socioeconomic development towards a more prosperous society.

The Twelth Malaysia Plan (12MP) will be aligned with the shared prosperity initiative encompassing three dimensions, namely economic empowerment ,environmental sustainability and social re-engineering.The economic empowerment dimension will include new sources of growth ,including Industrial Revolution 4.0 ,digital economy , aerospace industry ,integrated regional development as well as growth enablers such as sustainable energy sources and infrastructure connectivity.The environmental sustainability dimension,among others include the blue economy,green technology ,renewable energy as well as adaptation and mitigation of climate change.The socail re-engineering dimension comprises enhancing societal values,improving purchasing power of the people,strengthening social security networks and improving the wellbeing of people.

National Development plans and strategies have been implemented with varying levels of success in countries around the world -with the goal of promoting growth and shared prosperity for its citizens.For Malasia,national development planning has been central in guiding economic policymaking for more than 60 years.

The government has since announced that it will be commencing work on its 12th Malaysia Plan (2021-2025).To this end ,we draw from the recently concluded World Bank assessment of Malaysia's experience with national development planning to explore the lessons learnt in the quest to elevart the quality of planning inputs and processes ,implementation and corresponding outcomes.

CHALLENGES

1. Coordination among inter-governmental agencies

2. Efficacy in measures and implementation gaps.

3. Adequate resources.