KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is expected to achieve a stronger and more sustainable gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 4.8% next year on the back of its strong macroeconomic fundamentals, according to Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.

He said Malaysia’s highly-diversified economic and export structure, supportive labour market, low and stable inflation, a strong and well-capitalised financial sector and a healthy current account surplus on the balance of payments would continue to drive the economy, going forward.

“This outlook is higher than the estimates by the International Monetary Fund at 4.4% and the World Bank at 4.5% as the government remains committed to implementing its development priorities.

“For 2020, RM56bil has been allocated for 5,466 development projects to support the growth momentum and strengthen the country’s long-term economic capacity whereby of this amount, RM53.2bil is allocated for 4,744 ongoing projects and the remaining RM2.8bil has been set aside for 722 new projects, ” he said in a statement.

Over the next decade, he said, the government would place greater emphasis on restructuring the economy by developing new economic areas to propel the economy forward and create business opportunities and high-paying jobs, in line with the objectives of Shared Prosperity Vision 2030.

He said this entails ensuring an inclusive, sustainable and meaningful socio-economic development to provide a decent standard of living for all Malaysians, which would be operationalised through the 12th Malaysia Plan 2021-2025 and the 13th Malaysia Plan 2026-2030.

Azmin said the government remained vigilant and would continue to focus on strengthening Malaysia’s near-term resilience and advancing structural reforms to raise medium-term growth.

“Hence, the country’s growth potential will be optimised by strengthening productivity and innovation as catalysts of growth whereby emphasis will be placed on empowering the manufacturing sector to produce more high quality, diverse and complex products.” — Bernama