The Malaysia Plan: A Policy Initiative and/or a Shopping List
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33736/jbk.9587.2025Keywords:
Malaysia Plan, Policy, Politics, budgetary constraints. , institutional accountability, development planningAbstract
The Malaysia Plan is a five-year development plan. Many countries implemented the five-year development plan because of the failure of the market or price mechanism to promote growth, efficiency and equity. The plan can help to accelerate the country’s economic growth and development through resource mobilization and allocation. The process of making a Malaysia Plan is a lengthy exercise, involving all levels of the civil service, and numerous technical committees and taskforces. At the end of this exercise, the projects to be implemented are documented in the plan’s project list. But none of the approved or identified projects will be implemented in the first year of any Malaysia Plan period, as the tenders for the projects will only be in the second half of the year. Some of the projects may not be implemented at all during the plan period as the projects may not receive any allocations in the plan’s five annual budgets. Some of the projects may also be taken out of the list during the Mid-Term Review of the Plan. Experience has shown that about 60% of the approved Malaysia Plan projects cannot be implemented or completed in the same plan period. The Malaysia Plan document is an economic manifesto and a political document. Is it also a mere shopping list?
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