Thursday July 1, 2010




118 EPPs identified



PETALING JAYA: The 12 National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) have identified 118 entry point projects (EPPs) and 35 business opportunities with an estimated annual gross national income (GNI) contribution of about US$156bil (RM514.8bil) by 2020.

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who announced this, said 80% of the EPPs would be funded by the private sector to make it the key driver of the national economy.

Addressing participants of the NKEA live labs here yesterday, the Prime Minister said: “You have covered the programmes and acti vities that will generate a 66% increase in GNI and you will have to find the remaining 34% over the next four weeks.”

Following the unveiling of the New Economic Model (NEM) in March and the 10th Malaysia Plan recently, the Government engaged the private sector to map out concrete plans and initiatives to transform the country into a developed and high income nation.

The Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) has invited 425 individuals from both the private and public sectors to develop detailed implementation programmes and big results delivery plans for the various NKEA.

Najib, who is also the Finance Minister, said he would consider the suggestions by the 12 NKEAs for the coming budget in October and provide allocations including tax incentives.

“There will be some fine-tuning to be done but by and large, all the recommendations will be accepted by the Government and by August, we will present it to the public for their understanding,” he said.

Najib said it did not matter to him that Malaysia had not qualified for the ongoing FIFA World Cup, saying: “It’s more important for Malaysia to qualify as a developed and high income nation by 2020. Judging by what I have noticed, that is more achievable.”

He said the Government was deeply committed to the NKEA with the support and commitment of the lab members.

“Together with the people’s support, we will achieve this massive transformation of Malay sia in the spirit of 1Malaysia,” he stressed.

The 12 sectors shortlisted for the NKEA are telecommunications, financial services, wholesale, retail and distribution, business services, agriculture and education.

The 211 companies attending the labs include Shell, Exxon-Mobil, Sime Darby, Genting Plantations, Petronas, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Celcom, Ericsson, Maybank, Tesco, Sunway Medical College, Masterskill Uni versity College, The Body Shop, AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines, RapidKL, Digi Telecommunications and Mydin Hypermarket.

Of the 425 lab members, 80 are from various government ministries and agencies, 18 representing NGOs with 327 from the private sector.