Malaysia announces new five-year development plan: expecting to become a high-income country by 2025

     Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri submitted the 12th Malaysia Plan to the House of Commons on September 27. This latest five-year plan for Malaysia's economic development focuses on promoting economic recovery and increasing people's income.

     The total allocation of this plan is expected to reach 400 billion ringgit, and it is committed to ensuring sustainable economic growth and fairer social distribution. It is hoped that by 2025, Malaysia will become a high-income country and a high-tech country.

     The main development goals of the plan include, during the period from 2021 to 2025, to achieve an average annual growth rate of GDP of 4.5% to 5.5%; by 2025, the average monthly household income will reach 10,000 ringgit; Regional development gaps, energy conservation and emission reduction, etc.

     Ismail said frankly that the new crown epidemic has had a great impact on the Malaysian economy. In 2020, Malaysia's GDP fell by 5.6% from the previous year, which also led to a decline in the average annual GDP growth rate to 2.7% during the Eleventh Malaysia Plan (2016-2020). He said that during the 12th Malaysia Plan, efforts will be made to restore economic growth momentum.

     Ismail pointed out that the Malaysian plan will improve the income levels of low-income groups of all ethnic groups, including improving special loans in communities where Chinese people live together to help low-income Chinese families. He also plans to create 500,000 jobs by the end of this year to reduce the impact of the epidemic.

     In addition, the plan will continue to focus on promoting various large-scale infrastructure projects in Malaysia to promote national development, including the Singapore and Malaysia-Singapore-Singapore subway projects and the Malaysia East Coast Railway Project, which are expected to be completed in 2026.

     In terms of balancing development and environmental protection, Ismail said that Malaysia will no longer build new coal-fired power stations, and hopes to become a carbon-neutral country by 2050 at the earliest. He promised that the government will launch a comprehensive national energy policy and gradually replace coal-fired power stations with natural gas power stations in West Malaysia to generate electricity in a cleaner way.

      In the plan, the Malaysian government also plans a number of social and political reforms, including a promise to submit a constitutional amendment in the near future to implement the policy of lowering the voting age to 18 years old.