KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 — The upcoming 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) needs to ensure a robust and action-oriented policy roadmap to build Malaysia back better during and after the pandemic, said researchers at the Research for Social Advancement (Refsa).

Jaideep Singh and Lillian Wee said there were eight important areas that must be tackled, namely the formulation of new and smart policies; address foreign labour issues; implement mission-oriented industrial policy, and reduce wage inequality.

Other important areas include institutional reforms that empower local government representatives to implement local policy calibration; reorganising the healthcare system and that all ministries must embrace digitalisation as well as identify new areas of economic growth, they said.

"The 12MP must introduce a strategic roadmap for a five-year recovery plan which includes structural reforms in government as well as the private sector,” they said in a statement today. "The roadmap needs to address issues of low growth and low productivity, low wages, and an unreliable social safety net, just to name a few.”

Jaideep and Wee advised that policy restructuring and alignment needed to be extended to all ministries and their agencies as well as government-linked investment companies and government-linked companies for the ultimate goal of sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

The 12MP is set to be presented on Monday, September 27, in Parliament, while Budget 2022 will be tabled on October 29, 2021. — Bernama