KUALA LUMPUR: The rapid reopening of economic and social sectors as well as continuous government assistance to help industries and businesses will put Malaysia on the right track to full recovery, says National Recovery Council chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (pic).
He said Malaysia’s GDP (gross domestic product) is expected to grow by between 5.5% and 6.5% next year, supported by improvements in global trade, stabilised commodity prices, and gradual improvement in consumer and business sentiments following the rapid opening up of its economic sectors and post-vaccination recovery.
The former prime minister stressed that recovery should not only mean bringing the country back to its pre-pandemic economic and social position, but also creating robust growth that will put Malaysia back on track to achieve its developed nation status.
“We must also continuously improve our health system and digital infrastructure to help the country better manage pandemics in the future without grave implications on the lives and livelihoods of the people,” he said in his speech yesterday at the 13th Leaders Programme of the Singapore Civil Service.
The text of his speech was made available to the media by his office.
Muhyiddin said that poverty would be another major problem that the Malaysian government has to quickly address as many in the B40 and M40 groups suffered significant drop in household income.
In this regard, he said he hoped the government would continue to pursue the implementation of the Shared Prosperity Vision 2020-2030, which aims at providing decent standards of living for all Malaysians irrespective of race, regional locations, or social status.
On the civil service, Muhyiddin said it is important for policymakers to be guided by the advice of civil servants, who are the custodians of those policies.
“When we exercise our powers and authorities as ministers and prime ministers, we must ensure that they are consistent with the policies that we ourselves made. — Bernama