PM Najib Launches Malaysia Productivity Blueprint, Targets Minimum Annual Labour Productivity Growth Of 3.7 Per Cent By 2020

PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), May 8 (Bernama) -- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Monday launched the Malaysia Productivity Blueprint and set a minimum target to achieve an annual labour productivity growth of 3.7 per cent by 2020 (picture). Najib, who is also the Finance Minister, said the productivity blueprint had outlined five strategic thrusts, 10 national initiatives, 32 sectoral initiatives and 16 key activities. He said the blueprint would serve as a holistic measure to target initiatives to open up potential productivity at national, sectoral and industrial level. The five strategic thrusts are to create manpower for the future, spearhead the digital drive and innovation, ensure industry accountability towards productivity, to build a strong ecosystem and put in place a strong implementation mechanism. "An effective productivity increase will serve as the basis to encourage sustained economic growth and contribute towards the country's aspiration to emerge as a high-income nation and among the top 20 developed nation by 2015,” he added. He said this aspiration was in tandem with the Eleventh Malaysia Plan which emphasised on productivity being the thrust of economic growth. "This is the reason why the government wants to enhance the productivity level to an annual growth of 3.7 per cent. Today, it is still below traget (3.3 per cent in 2015),” he said when launching the blueprint here Monday. Najib is Chairman of the National Productivity Council (NPC) which will not only supervise the country's Productivity Agenda but also meet every quarter to get a status update. "As chairman of the council, I will write to the relevant ministry, agency and private sector to determine as to what they should do to achieve the target. "It will be very specific, directed to the appropriate ministries and agencies. This is to show we are very serious in our drive towards this," Najib said. Elaborating further, the prime minister, who chaired the council's first meeting today, said NPC had agreed to roll out six key initiatives immediately. "The six initiatives are; to restructure and improve the management of foreign workers; to actively encourage the adoption of the fourth industry revolution technologies by companies across main economic sectors; and to strengthen digitalisation among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through e-commerce and adoption of innovative technology. "The other three are; to embed productivity targets for enterprises into disbursement processes of new grants, incentives and soft loans; to remove non-tariff measures that impede business growth and improve the efficiency of the logistics sector and to evolve governance model to drive game-changing implementation of the blueprint. In addition, the prime minister said the council has also agreed to establish three productivity nexus which included retail and food and beverage, electric and electronic, and chemical products. "Each of this nexus will be provided with a launching grant of US$1.15 million (RM5 million) to carry out initial activities and ensure they will be able to fund their own projects in the future," he said. This will be followed by the second phase which would kick off in September for the machinery and facilities sub-sector and, tourism and agro-food while the third phase, which would begin in December, is for the information, communication and technology, professional services and private medical care services sub-sectors,” he added. The execution of the blueprint will be funded via at least 89 existing programmes under the 11MP with an allocation of US$2.19 billion (RM9.5 billion) for the period 2017 to 2020, he said. The private sector must also allocate adequate funds to finance their productivity initiatives. "Via high productivity, Malaysia's economy will become more competitive and generate a stronger growth. With high productivity, businesses will flourish and generate more high-income job opportunities, the people will enjoy high salaries and good quality of life,” Najib added. Today's meeting also decided on the need to recognise multinational and local companies which have achieved high growth rate, high productivity, as well as, a high number of local employees. Najib said special recognition would be accorded and an announcement would be made soon. "This shows that the government is committed and serious in taking these initiatives, all in the pursuit of spearheading economic growth,” he added. -- BERNAMA (photoBERNAMA)