by Liew Chin Tong
Is the ETP truly transformative or is it just another expensive Public Relations exercise? The Rakyat has a right to know.
The government of Malaysia has invested a significant amount of resources and energy towards its Economic Transformation Program (ETP) which is currently being led by Senator Datuk Idris Jala , CEO of the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU). According to a media report, RM66 million was paid to various consultants to establish PEMANDU. And this agency is not cheap to maintain. It’s eight directors have an average salary of RM30,000 a month each while an associate director each receive an average of RM23,300 per month. With this amount of taxpayer’s dollars being spent, the Rakyat has a right to know the concrete results which the ETP is supposed to deliver.
More important than how much PEMANDU costs is the ETP’s goal to transform Malaysia into a high income country. Here, PEMANDU has set very ambitious goals for itself – RM48,000 GNI per capita, 3.3 million new jobs, RM1.4 trillion in new investments, annual growth rate of 6% per annum, from now until 2020. In the eight ETP Updates announced by PEMANDU from October 2010 to November 2011, its transformation roadmap seems to be going on very well, with almost all of its targets achieved.
However, when the ETP is examined in greater detail, as was done in an ongoing series entitled “A Critique of the ETP” by the Research for Social Advancement (REFSA), we find that the ETP is not as transformative as it sounds. For example, we would have reached RM48,000 GNI per capita with or without the ETP. And reaching this target does not mean that we will be twice as rich in 2020 as we were in 2009. Continue reading “Public forum – PEMANDU and the ETP: Truly Transformative or Business as Usual?”
