BANGI: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has proven to be a visionary leader based on Malaysia’s economic achievement under his administration, said National Council of Professors head of economic and management cluster Prof Tan Sri Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali.
As a result, Malaysia is now one step away from achieving high-income status country, he added.
Based on his study, Noor Azlan said the government had been prudent and successful in managing the country’s fiscal deficit, which had been reduced year-by-year to three per cent in 2017.
“The government is focusing on reducing the deficit even further to 2.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year.
“Since Najib took office in 2009, the deficit had been steadily reduced from around 6.7 per cent. This reflects consistent and ongoing sound management of the country’s fiscal standing,” he said, adding that the achievement was echoed by the International Monetary Fund, Bloomberg and World Bank Group.
Noor Azlan described Najib as a leader who is calm in making decisions and manages problems in organised manner.
“Najib has his own way of transforming the economy by introducing new economic model together with his long-term vision through the National Transformation 50 (TN50).
“When TN50 was introduced, there was a lot of engagement involving listening of what the people from the bottom need,” he said.
Noor Azlan said people should not directly compare the administration of former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad with Najib as the era was different.
“During Dr Mahathir’s time, there was a lot of iconic buildings being built, but if you keep on building, how many iconic things we need? For me the economic management is more important as it will benefit you as individual, young or old, young families, old citizens, the disabled and many more.
“I see the different approach use by these two leaders, Najib’s era has more emphasis on people-centric approach.
“It involves different planning, development and economic management. So we cannot make apple to apple comparison,” he said at a press conference at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia here today.
Noor Azlan added that Najib was facing more challenges with the post-modernisation society that we have today.
“Post-modernisation society is more complex. Most of them have high education and earn big income. They want to get involved, they want to know what is going on and they want to be part of it,” he said.
Noor Azlan hopes that the government would continue to focus on three important clusters namely housing, transportation and food to ensure the people’s wellbeing.