KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 — This year’s federal development expenditure (DE) performance until August 15 recorded an increase to 50.35 per cent compared to 26.4 per cent on April 15, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said.
The prime minister said this was informed in the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) Highest Monitoring Committee meeting which he chaired today, which was also attended by senior ministers and heads of department and agencies.
“All ministries are urged to raise their expenditure performance. Unused allocations must be returned to the Finance Ministry (MoF) to be rechannelled to ministries in need,” he said in a statement here today.
The prime minister said the 12MP Highest Monitoring Committee and the National Development Project Implementation Facilitation Committee (JP4N) will continue to look into current issues and challenges to expedite the implementation of development projects during the 12MP period for the benefit of Keluarga Malaysia (the Malaysian Family).
In addition, Ismail Sabri said the meeting today had also agreed that the Prime Minister’s Department’s Economic Planning Unit (EPU) prepare a 12MP mid-term review to examine and revise existing policies and targets so that targeted development goals can be achieved, with the process to run for a year from September this year.
In line with the target of achieving the status of an inclusive and sustainable high-income nation in 2025, Ismail Sabri said the meeting agreed to closely and continuously monitor key performance indicators.
He said this includes ensuring the implementation of interventions that are necessary due to uncertainties in the global economy, geopolitical conflicts that affect inflation rates as well as slow changes in the country’s economic structure.
Besides this, Ismail Sabri said Malaysia had become an ageing nation in 2021 and is expected to become an aged nation in 2044.
He said an ageing nation is defined as having a minimum seven per cent of its population aged 65 and older while an aged nation has 14 per cent of its total population aged 65 and above.
As such, Ismail Sabri said the meeting also agreed with the national agenda’s mainstream mechanism of an ageing nation and the preparation of a blueprint of an Ageing Nation Agenda which will be coordinated by the EPU.
He said the government is also committed to achieving the zero hardcore poverty goal by the end of 2025 through the Keluarga Malaysia hardcore poverty eradication programme (BMTKM), in which its first phase kicked off in April involving 80 localities and about 5,000 household heads.
The prime minister said BMTKM will use a new integrated approach that is more holistic and focused on income generation activities among the hardcore poor in a sustainable manner. — Bernama
