KUALA LUMPUR – The half-term review (HTR) of the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) to be tabled in Parliament next week will show a new comprehensive action plan, says Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli.
He said previously that the half-term review was only to evaluate performance, but the current review was unique in the sense that the existing plan needed to be totally re-evaluated due to, among other things, the Covid-19 pandemic that hit the country and the world from 2020 to 2022.
“This is because many ideas or plans that were made before the spread of Covid-19 can no longer be used. In other words, it is as if the HTR that will be tabled is a new plan for the country,” he said in a video uploaded on Facebook yesterday.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is expected to table the half-term review in Parliament on Monday, September 11.
Commenting further, Rafizi said that with the unity government now administering the country, the review would also take into account the Madani Economic Framework launched by the prime minister, which, among other things, outlines two main targets, namely raising the “ceiling” and raising the “floor”.
He said raising the ceiling means creating a high-value economy with high wages, better technological content and value, and attracting investments from the world’s biggest companies.
“Raising the floor means that we want to ensure that if our economy grows more rapidly and there is more wealth produced from that economic growth, the distribution should be fair to all.
“Our focus is to ensure that any economic planning, even if it is not grand like before, not projects worth tens of billions, but the amount of money and allocation is distributed to the people, including through the Progressive Wage Policy, so that we can feel the overflow from the economy for most people through a better salary scale,” he said.
With the theme Resetting the Economy; Strengthening Security, Well-Being and Inclusivity; and Advancing Sustainability, the 12MP was presented by the ninth prime minister, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, on September 27, 2021, with an estimated development allocation of RM400 billion. – September 8, 2023