Malaysia announced today it is to spend 220 billion ringgit (€49.3 billion) over the next five years to fast-track the country's economic and social development.
The five-year plan, a blueprint toward the country's grand vision to become a developed nation by 2020, foresees the economy growing by 6 per cent every year until 2010, and forecasts manufacturing to expand by an average 6.7 per cent annually.
The economy expanded an average 4.5 per cent and manufacturing by 4.1 per cent in the previous five-year period.
"We have no time to lose. Only 15 years remain between now and 2020," Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in his two-hour speech to parliament as he presented the plan.
"These 15 years must be our most productive years, our best years, so that we may stand tall in the year 2020 and declare that our vision has been realised."
He said 200 billion ringgit (€44.8 billion) will be spent by the government and another 20 billion ringgit (€4.4 billion) by the private sector.
The plan also seeks to bridge the wealth gap between the country's three major races
- the Malays and the minority Chinese and Indians
- and cut poverty level by half to 2.8 per cent of the 26 million population.
AP