Malaysia Shared Prosperity Vision 2030

The Shared Prosperity Vision as the country’s new direction was announced by the then Prime Minister of Malaysia during the tabling of the Mid-Term Review of the Eleventh Malaysia Plan (MTR 11MP) on 18 October 2018 in Parliament. Subsequently, the Shared Prosperity Vision’s basic framework was detailed by the Prime Minister in the Keynote Address of Pakatan Harapan’s First Anniversary as the Government on 9 May 2019.

Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 is a commitment to make Malaysia a nation that achieves sustainable growth along with fair and equitable distribution, across income groups, ethnicities, regions and supply chains. The commitment is aimed at strengthening political stability, enhancing the nation’s prosperity and ensuring that the ‘rakyat’ (people) are united whilst celebrating ethnic and cultural diversity as the foundation of the nation state. The primary aim of the shared prosperity vision is to provide a decent standard of living to all Malaysians by 2030. The shared prosperity plan has three objectives, i.e., Development for all, addressing wealth and income disparities and to have a united, prosperous and dignified nation.

The first objective aims at restricting the economy to be more progressive, knowledge-based and high-valued with full community participation at all levels, whereas the second objective aims at addressing economic disparities across income groups, ethnicities, regions and supply chains to protect and empower the rakyat in ensuring that no one is left behind. The final objective, aims at building Malaysia as a united, prosperous and dignified nation and subsequently becoming an economic centre of Asia.
Along with the three objectives, the shared prosperity vision outlines 15 guiding principles, seven strategic thrusts and eight enablers to achieve the desired goals. Shared Prosperity Vision sets clear and measurable goals and targets. The indicators developed to measure national development are not solely based on gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

Shared Prosperity Vision has been formulated to address issues like economic growth not reaching its full potential, diversity of products yet to reach an optimum level, reliance on commodity base exports is high, industries still in the low value added category with low technology adoption, CE to GDP still low, disparity between income groups and regions, unfair competition in markets, corruption, abuse of power and Bumiputera economy not yet grown in line with the country’s development and progress. In order to fix these issues, fifteen guiding principles of the Shared Prosperity Vision were formed, i.e., Continuous Prosperity, Equitable Outcome, Equitable Growth, Distributed Economy, Inclusivity, Learning Society, Future Economy, Needs-Based Approach Economy, Institutional Political-Economy, Integrated Social Model, Economic Centre of Asia, Democracy and Stability, Integrity and Good Governance, Unity in Diversity and Sovereignty and Sustainability.

Along with the guiding principles, seven strategic thrusts were developed to accomplish the Shared Prosperity Vision initiatives, i.e., Restructuring Business and Industry Ecosystem, Key Economic Growth Activities, Transforming Human Capital, Labour Market & Compensation of Employees, Social Wellbeing, Regional Inclusion and Social Capital. The Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 has eight enablers to accelerate the implementation process of the seven strategic thrusts in an effort to achieve the targets. These enablers are developed based on 15 Guiding Principles considering efforts to ensure the success of initiatives and programmes. The eight enablers are Fiscal Sustainability, Financial Capital, Effective Institutional Delivery, Governance and Integrity, Education and Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Big Data, Sustainability and Enlightened Society.

The Government of Malaysia has decided to develop an outcome-based national development plan. Setting clear targets and measurement indicators will be instrumental in determining the success of Shared Prosperity Vision 2030. In addition, over the past decades, Malaysia has put emphasis on the growth of the GDP as a national economic achievement indicator. In light of this, there is a crucial need for Shared Prosperity Vision to set comprehensive targets and indicators that will have direct impact on the ‘rakyat’. In developing a polarity management model under Shared Prosperity Vision, several key target groups have been such as B40 group (Poor and Economically Vulnerable), Community in Economic Transition, Indigenous Community, Bumiputera in Sabah and Sarawak, Persons with disabilities, Youth, Women, Children and Senior Citizens.

Malaysia requires a change in the economic framework and direction in order to allow the country to realise its full economic potential in a sustainable manner so that the outcome can be shared fairly and equitably by all the people. The Government has to strengthen governance and integrity, increase understanding of the nation’s history and its narrative, strengthen social capital, and raise awareness of the bond that will unite the Malaysians. This vision will ensure that Malaysia will be peaceful, harmonious and united.

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