SIX PER CENT ANNUAL GDP GROWTH ACHIEVABLE, SAYS MALAYSIAN PM

KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 (Bernama) -- The target of six per cent annual growth
for real gross domestic product (GDP) on the road for Malaysia to become a
high-income nation may be ambitious but it is achievable, Prime Minister Najib
Tun Razak said Wednesday.

He said that in order to meet the target, public investment in the economy
must play a relatively smaller role than private investment.

"Another important facet is that the government must point out at the
sectors where the private sector can invest," Najib said.

"The challenge at the same time is to reduce fiscal deficit to less than
three per cent by 2015 from 5.3 per cent now," he said at the launch of Oxford
Business Group (OBG)'s "The Report Malaysia 2010" here.

Earlier at the event, OBG regional editor Paul Kuncinas said Malaysia would
be posting a high growth number in 2010 of at least six per cent, thanks to a
bounce back in traditional exports and steady consumer demand.

"I'm relieved today in the sense that the OBG has given us a ringing
endorsement by saying yes, Malaysia can achieve six per cent this year. As you
can qualify, that is not flattery but factual," said Najib.

He also said that attracting additional foreign direct investment was
becoming more challenging and Malaysia would continue to seek new areas of
growth and resuscitate old areas.

"Such investment will include the 12 National Key Economic Areas that we
have identified," he added.

Najib said Malaysia also recognised that the country's ability to encourage
innovation may provide the tipping point in the national development goals.

"It is clear that countries that make innovation a priority, and we would
certainly drive this, have a clearer competitive advantage," he said.

According to Najib, Malaysia has also learned valuable lessons from its
Asian neighbours and is in the process of applying those lessons in the right
areas.

This was the impetus for the 10th Malaysia Plan and the rationale for the
country's policy initiatives focusing on the pursuit of high-income status by
2020.

"Malaysia is poised to undertake the major structural transformation that a
high-income economy requires through an approach that is holistic yet focused on
specific outcomes," he said.

Najib also said that transparency was a key factor to facilitate business
and economic activities, adding that a list of government projects that the
private sector could participate in would be made known.

-- BERNAMA