Saturday April 1, 2006
Going all out to overcome socio-economic differences
THE Ninth Malaysia Plan will re-emphasise efforts to address socio-economic disparities, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.
“We have not achieved the targets that were set under the New Economic Policy (NEP). We cannot pretend to be blind to the realities today,” he said.
He said equitable distribution had stagnated since early 1990s when the country began liberalising the economy.
“When the Asian financial crisis occurred in 1998, the disparity in income levels became even more pronounced, especially between ethnic groups, between rich and poor and between the urban and rural areas.”
Abdullah said strategies to overcome the disparity would be based on three principles – eradicating poverty and ensuring no one was left out in the development process; generating balanced development especially in underdeveloped areas; and ensuring that all Malaysians benefited from the economic growth fairly and equitably.
The NEP was designed after the May 13 riots to fight poverty and restructure society to solve the unequal distribution of economic wealth among races.
Abdullah added that to achieve the objective of strengthening national unity, the NEP had to be fine-tuned to meet its original objectives.
“If unaddressed, these disparities can threaten the harmony and stability we enjoy and, consequently, thwart the country's economic development,” he added.
Ninth Malaysia Plan Links
Go to StarBiz for more stories.
Go to StarBiz for more stories
Click here for the full text of the Prime Minister's speech on the Ninth Malaysia Plan to Parliament.
Click here for the full text of the Ninth Malaysia Plan.
Read our Special Report on the Ninth Malaysia Plan here.
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