MALAYSIA WANTS 5.0 PERCENT ECONOMIC GROWTH IN 2010

SINGAPORE, Nov 13 (Bernama) -– Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said Friday he
would push hard to ensure Malaysia achieves a five per cent economic growth in
2010, two percent more than earlier estimated by the government.

He said his administration would unveil a new economic model for Malaysia by
year end, which that would identify new source of growth, to ensure the country
achieved a higher rate than 3.0 per cent post-crisis.

"I'm not sure whether I will get it.But I will try my level best," Najib
determinedly told a dialogue session at the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (Apec) CEO Summit held on the sidelines of the Apec Leaders meeting
at Suntec here.

The Prime Minister was one of the panelists in the dialogue themed, "Is The
Global Crisis Really Over". The other panelists included World Bank President
Robert Zoellick,PricewaterhouseCoopers International's Global chairman Dennis M
Nally and Inter-American Development president, Dr Luis Alberto Moreno.

Najib explained that the new source of growth would include the
strengthening of domestic demand and getting the private sector, which was
still not doing enough in Malaysia, to become actively involved.

Telling the audience that he had asked his ministers and officials to get
the extra two percent by next year and probably beyond, Najib said he would push
hard to make the government more efficient, business friendly and sell
Malaysia's story abroad.

To a question, he said with the recently-introduced plethora of
drastic economic reforms, he was confident that the current two government
stimulus packages would work for Malaysia.

"Well, it better work.Otherwise, you won't see me around for too long,"
Najib said candidly, drawing loud laughter from around the summit hall.

He said Malaysia's stimulus packages were one of the highest in
the world, as it was in the region of 9.0 percent of the GDP.

Since being introduced, the economic numbers had been going up, especially
in the second half of this year, Najib said, adding that next year, as forecast
by the International Monetary Fund, Malaysia's economy is expected to grow at
2.5 to 3.0 percent.

He said the government had also added RM1 billion in its spending every
month since the introduction of the stimulus packages.

Najib also listed the economic and financial reforms that the government had
introduced such as the liberalisation of the 27 sub-sectors and the financial
sector, the imminent issuance of licences for new commercial banks for
foreigners to participate in the country's financial sector, the growth of the
Islamic finance, and also doing away with Foreign Investment Committee (FIC)
guidelines with respect to Bumiputera equity.

"If you take it as a whole, the plethora of measures we have introduced has
struck a strong resonance domestically as well as internationally," Najib said,
adding that without the economic measures, Malaysia would not be getting the 3.0
per cent growth rate.

Asked whether the global economic crisis was over, the prime minister
answered with a resounding "yes", but tempered it with two caveats, asking
whether it would be sustainable and if growth could be the same as
the pre-crisis level.

He said countries that had large domestic markets like China and India and
to some extent Indonesia, would do pretty well next year and probably beyond.

But countries that had greater dealings in the global market like Malaysia
and had total trade twice its GDP, and Singapore too, were not really decoupled
yet from the advance economies in the west, Najib said.

He said although the financial sector in the west had somewhat recovered in
terms of government guarantee, the real economy there was still going
through a major adjustment due to rather high unemployment, rising fiscal
deficit and loss of consumer confidence.

The prime minister also listed several approaches that would help to
attain
a sustainable growth rate in the global economy.

He said world economies must strongly reject protectionism, conclude the
Doha Round by next year, and there must not be any premature withdrawal of
incentives for fiscal packages until there was real recovery led by the
private sector.

Najib also said reforms must be implemented in the new global financial
architecture, by ensuring a better regulatory mechanism, and having closer
supervision especially on derivative products.

For countries like Malaysia, he said the old paradigm that worked many years
for it, "manufacture in the East, consume in the West", would require a new
growth, new model and new strategies to be put in place.

In that context, Najib said Malaysia's new economic model would based more
on innovation, high value, the search for a new source of approach,strengthening
domestic demand and the long term goal of greater integration within the East
Asian economy.

"So, if we put in place some of the short and medium term measures,
hopefully we will get growth rates back on track," Najib stated.

He said the Apec meeting here was a wonderful opportunity for its members to
make a strong political statement on fighting and resisting protectionism
and wanting the Doha Round to be completed.

He expressed the hope that the United States could bring the Doha Round
to a successful conclusion.

"I have been saying it privately, but now let state openly.The thing I liked
about (former US) President (George) Bushs' foreign policy was that, he was very
pro free trade," Najib confided.

Even though he did not agree with other policies of Bush, Najib said he
liked the president's policy on free trade and that he stated this strongly at
the Apec meeting in Lima, Peru.

"I hope the same message will be repeated in Singapore and the leaders will
see to it that the Doha Round is completed next year," the prime minister added.

–-BERNAMA