KUALA LUMPUR: The National Transformation Programme (NTP) is a real reflection of Malaysia's current firm economic situation, economists said.
They said the rakyat had benefitted greatly from the many socio-economic initiatives under NTP, nearly eight years after it was launched.
This can be felt particularly from the vast improvement in public transport and efforts to address high living costs. "Those who are in urban areas could really feel the effect when the Mass Rapid Transit commenced operations in July last year. The travelling among commuters has improved and perhaps, it may have contributed to a slightly less congested road in Klang Valley.
"We think that the recent economic performance has been decent with private sector continuing to be the main driver for growth. Firms and companies continue to upgrade their production capacity especially those in the export-oriented industries.
“However, the government needs very mindful on their state of finances as this would allow the government to have the financial muscle to prescribe the stabilisation policies in the event of economic adversities such as those in 2009 where global economy succumbed into recession following the Sub Prime Crisis in 2007 and 2008,” said Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr. Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid.
However, he said there is a need for the government to maintain a good financial discipline as there would be a time that it might to enact fiscal pump priming to stabilise the economic growth and ensuring investor’s confidence that the country is able to ward off a massive slowdown or recession.
Afzanizam said despite some issues that need to be address, the NTP was a good benchmark on the good progress of the country.
“Issues such as income and wealth gap, rising cost of living and unemployment among graduates are still prevalent so this should be taken due consideration as well although these issues are not unique to Malaysia.
“The government should place greater importance on the role of Waqf as a means to complement the fiscal policy. Persistent reliance on tax revenue may not be sustainable as the country would eventually become the ageing society. So tax collection can be very challenging going forward.
“We see Waqf could potentially be a policy instrument as it is the most effective means to redistribute wealth as it is purely voluntary and is very inclusive as the beneficiaries could come from any race or religion. But there should be proper check and balance as governance and audit must ensure that Waqf asset or fund is well-run and put into a good use,” he said.
Meanwhile, MIDF Research chief economist Dr Kamarudin Mohd Nor said the spillover effects of the NTP efforts had a direct impact on targeted groups such as the entrepreneurs, investors and the people.
“Generally, we see that NTP 2017's achievement is very encouraging, showing that the programmes implemented are fruitful and able to produce economic and social benefits to target groups.
“The country is generally on track to realise the objective moving towards a high-income nation by 2020," he said when contacted by NSTP yesterday.
Kamarudin said in ensuring the success of NTP 2017, the government's challenge was to maintain the existing performance in the coming years.
“The government should examine the overwhelming impact on the programs implemented to ensure that their impact can be enjoyed by different levels of society.
“The initiatives implemented since 2010 through the Economic Transformation Program (ETP) has helped to provide businesses and people with the opportunity to tap into the current economic development.
“The success the foreign direct investment shows direct investment direct investment shows Malaysia as a good investment destination, reflecting the government's policy and infrastructure support are in line with the needs and needs of investors," he added.