Govt to step up restructuring of economy, says Rafizi

 

Economy minister Rafizi Ramli said Malaysia must take advantage of its current economic growth momentum. (AP pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia must focus on economic restructuring to reduce the nation’s exposure to global economic challenges in the future, says economy minister Rafizi Ramli.

He added that this was pivotal in order to take advantage of the country’s current economic growth momentum.

Therefore, he said, ongoing economic restructuring measures would be accelerated, including the restructuring of the energy sector with a shift towards renewable energy and transitioning the government’s socioeconomic policy from an income-based approach (using B40, M40 and T20 categories) to one based on a household’s net disposable income.

According to Rafizi, the government will also announce measures to facilitate and expand the domestic use of solar power in the near future.

“This is in line with the government’s decision to implement targeted electricity subsidies, where the subsidies for the B40 and M40 groups will be retained while T20 consumers will start paying tariffs closer to the market rate,” he said in a statement.

The minister said the establishment of a central household socioeconomic database, as announced recently, would allow the government to accelerate the development of programmes and initiatives based on household net disposable income.

He said his ministry will coordinate with other ministries and agencies so that the government can step up the implementation of people-friendly projects nationwide to support national economic growth.

He noted that Malaysia’s gross domestic product growth of 5.6% in the first quarter of 2023 was better than the 4.9% growth that economists had forecast. - FMT