PUTRAJAYA: The government needs to redouble its efforts, identify new growth areas and ensure the nation maintains a 6% annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth in order to achieve developed status in 11 years, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said here today.
The prime minister said measures to redouble its efforts and identify new growth areas would be spelt out in the new economic model, expected to be launched at year-end.
"The new economic model would provide a clear guideline on what needs to be done and obviously information and communications technology (ICT) would play a greater role in this," he told reporters after chairing the 21st Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Malaysia Implementation Council Meeting.
It was the first meeting to be chaired by Najib since becoming prime minister.
On the GDP growth rate, Najib, who is also finance minister, said the government would have to be realistic in its projections.
It would be difficult to maintain the high growth rate at a time when the world was facing an economic crisis, he said.
"Realistically, we can achieve the 6% growth when the global economy recovers. We still have not recovered from the global recession. We export goods and therefore we need the West to buy these goods. When there is recovery in the West, then we can achieve the growth," he added.
On MSC Malaysia, Najib said the corridor was progressing as expected with over 2,000 MSC-status companies and almost 4,000 intellectual property rights registered.
In 2008, MSC-status companies generated RM21.8 billion in revenue with local companies contributing 69% of the total, representing a growth of 27% from 2007.
"MSC Malaysia-status companies made a contribution of RM7.09 billion in exports in 2008 and this is a reflection of our ICT industry. The number of jobs created in MSC Malaysia has also increased in tandem with the increase in companies," Najib said.
"There are now over 92,000 high skilled jobs in MSC Malaysia. I expect that we would be on track in meeting the goal of 100,000 jobs by the end of 2010."
Najib, however, said Malaysia needed to work fast in creating an abundant supply of well-trained and multi-skilled ICT workers who were on par with the best in the world.
On the meeting today, the prime minister said he had emphasised that more government ministries and agencies should adopt local ICT solutions provided these solutions and services were cost competitive and of high quality.
"I also feel that the government should utilise electronic means of outreach such as email, SMS (short messaging service) and social networks to connect with the rakyat. For example, SMS can be used to notify the people of floods and potential landslides.
"On the same note, I would also like to see a higher utilisation of MyKad to provide more conveniences to the people. This demonstrates that while ICT can be a complex subject, at the end of the day, the people can benefit from it by using a tool like MyKad," said Najib.
The prime minister said he was also pleased with the progress made by the agriculture flagship in the MSC, which was crucial in ensuring national food security and improving the income of farmers by leveraging on innovation and ICT.
"I would like to reiterate and as we discussed in the meeting earlier, MSC Malaysia has certainly moved in the right direction. MSC Malaysia is not an MDeC (Multimedia Development Corporation), it is not a Mosti (Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry) initiative, it is not even a government initiative. MSC Malaysia is the national ICT initiative for the people of Malaysia," he added. — Bernama
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