Government Policies
Government Policies
Major Government R&D Initiatives/Programs
Malaysia's seventh five-year plan seeks to deal with Malaysia's current economic constraints -- such as a labor and skills shortage, productivity and the current account deficit -- by turning Malaysian manufacturers into major players in the world market and by weaning them away from labor intensive industries. Domestic savings will be mobilized to support greater domestic investment in the production of intermediate goods. imports, especially of intermediate goods, are to be reduced as firms are encouraged to "produce and buy Malaysian". The plan promotes investment in science and technology and emphasizes human resource development, especially greater efforts to address growing labor shortages in manufacturing, agriculture and services. The plan stresses further diversification in the manufacturing sector, as well as pushing higher technology and value-added projects. More measures are also included to encourage small and medium size industries to go into production of intermediary products. over $88 billion is planned for public and private investment.
A major course correction is the proposal to discard the job-creation strategy of the past, which has contributed to growing problems of labor shortages and adverse balance of payments. Under the new plan, job creation will be replaced by minimization of labor inputs and maximization of quality and skills. New investments will be required to employ Robotics and be largely automated. The new "buzzword" in the plan is "total factor productivity".
The major share of government's budget will be allocated to the transport sector $6.3 billion (23.4 percent), followed by education and training $4.1 billion (15.1 percent) and defense usd2.8 billion (10.4 percent). Together these sectors account for almost half of the total public sector budget (48.9 percent).
Government plans and focus in IT policies.
The GoM’s aspiration to make Malaysia a regional hub for telecommunications as well as information technology (IT) has led to the development of Putrajaya - intelligent city/new government administration complex - and the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). Putrajaya will be equipped with state-of-the art communications technology and IT infrastructure while the MSC will be the focal point for the manufacturing of high value-added IT goods and services.
In July of 1995, the Government Information Telecommunications Network (GITN), announced a project which aims to enhance coordination between various government departments through the application of information technology was launched. The goal of the GITN is to create an integrated information technology infrastructure for the public sector. GITN Sdn Bhd, a joint venture company between Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) and Telekom Malaysia, will be responsible for implementation and management of the project. The Malaysian Administrative Modernization and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU), Public Administration Institute (INTAN), the Economic Planning Unit, the Ministry of Finance and the Chief Secretary's Office (KSN) are involved with the project. GITN is expected to play a significant role in the future development of IT projects in Malaysia.
