TOKYO: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the man who crafted Vision 2020, now says that its aims would only be achieved possibly by 2025 or sometime earlier.
The prime minister said the delay was due to the implementation of policies that were not compatible with achieving the aspiration of Vision 2020
With only two more years to 2020, he expressed doubts about attaining a developed, high-income nation status by that time.
“Even if we work extremely hard day and night, I don’t think we can achieve it in 2020. Maybe it will (take) slightly longer than that, may be 2025 or even less (earlier ) if we adopt the correct policies,” he told the 24th International Conference on the Future of Asia, or Nikkei Conference, here on Monday.
Dr Mahathir was the country’s fourth prime minister when he mooted Vision 2020 in 1991, aimed at making Malaysia a self-sufficient industrialised nation by 2020.
He is on a three-day working visit to Japan to attend the conference in what is his first trip overseas since taking office as Malaysia’s seventh prime minister last month following a stunning election victory.
Dr Mahathir was previously prime minister from 1981 to 2003. --Bernama