10th MALAYSIA PLAN: INTERPRETATION AND ROLE OF ENGINEERS

Prepared by: Ahmad Faezi Bin Faizol Muhammad Thaqif bin Mohamad Azmi Mohd Syahmi Bin Ab Hashim Muhamad Zakir Bin Ahmad 2009828788 2009477718 2009626946 2009829848

Prepared for: Ir. SHAHARIN BIN HAMID Engineers in Society Lecturer, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia, Shah Alam.

Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) Electronics (Computer) EE2507A Faculty of Electrical Engineering Date of Submission: 21st December 2012

INTRODUCTION

`Malaysia Plan is a five years development plan of the Malaysias government. As for 10th Malaysia plan that have been presented by our current beloved Prime Minister, Dato Sri Mohd. Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak on 10th June 2010, he calls upon all Malaysians to unite in the spirit of 1Malaysia: People First, Performance Now and make a strong commitment to carry out the noble responsibility to make a success of the transformation plan to become a high-income, developed, resilient and competitive nation, in the interest of the well-being of all Malaysians. Unlike previous Malaysia plan, the 10th Malaysia plan is designed to overcome new challenges in this new era of advanced technology. So, professional engineers play a very important role in this 10th Malaysia Plan and engineers need a new approach, a new enthusiasm and new determination driven by 1Malaysia spirit, to propel Malaysia into the next level of high growth. As future professional engineers, it is important for us to acknowledge 10th Malaysia plan so we can shape a better country in the future towards achieving developed country.

Interpretation of Tenth Malaysia Plan (10MP) (2011 2015)

The Tenth Malaysia Plan (10MP) is a plan prepared by Economic Planning Unit (EPU) of the Prime Ministers Department and the Finance Ministry of Malaysia with approval by the Cabinet of Malaysia to allocate the national budget to all economic sectors in Malaysia. To interpret this plan, first we need to review the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006 2010) which can be abbreviated to 9MP. Due to the global economic crisis that happens in 2009, the overall performance of the Ninth Malaysia Plan was really affected. Even though the growth of the first three years starting with 2006 was good, the crisis that happens in 2009 and the contraction due to the crisis in 2010 lowers the average making the Ninth Malaysia Plan has poor performance. Due to the problems that presented themselves in the Ninth Malaysia Plan, the Tenth Malaysia Plans changes the governments tactics. In the Tenth Malaysia Plan, there are 10 big ideas to better our nation. One of the big ideas is being internally driven and externally aware. This idea means that the government will continue to review and modernize regulations such as labor laws so that the country can have a good market economy. The idea also meant that priority will be given to regulations that can materially improve the ease of doing business in Malaysia. It will also support private sector activities through facilitating availability of funding, particularly in terms of supporting microenterprises, venture capital for innovation and export-related financing. This idea is different from the Ninth Malaysia Plan in the form that the balance between private sectors and public sectors are formed. Before this the public sectors was given more priorities. This means that the government shifted their tactics from everything is handled by the government to some of it can be handled by the private sectors.

Another big idea from 10MP is leveraging on our diversity internationally. This plan takes advantage of the fact that in the Southeast Asia, Malaysia is the safest country (19th in the world). This means that many outside countries will want to invest in our country. This idea means that the key initiatives of our countrys business will include trade promotion, enhancing regional connectivity and regional integration through trade agreements. The initiatives will be undertaken while strengthening links with traditional export markets like Australia, Europe and the US. The government will continue to support Malaysian companies to emerge as regional champions and assist in opening new markets. Transforming to high-income through specialization is also one of the big ideas of 10MP. In tis idea, the government will prioritize specific national key economic areas as part of the strategy towards greater specialization. Within each national key economic area, there will also be specialization in terms of sub-sectors. A recurring theme across national key economic areas in the context of specialization is the focus on quality and strengthening the value chain. This idea means that instead of trying to master every sector of the economy, the government has decided that we need to specialize in one field or more. Another idea in the 10MP is unleashing productivity-led growth and innovation. This idea means that the government will give special emphasis to enablers of productivity such as honing the skills of the workforce, promoting the development of concentrated industrial clusters and increasingly targeting investment promotion for quality investments. The government will also invest heavily in creativity including efforts such as stimulating entrepreneurship, revamping school curriculum, focusing on research and development and promoting availability of risk capital. Research and development is a very important thing in any sector. Knowing this, the government has decided to feed the research and development sectors of this country to produce something that will help the growth of the country.

The fifth big idea of 10MP is nurturing, attracting and retaining top talent. In this idea, the government will give skills training a special emphasis under the 10MP to ensure Malaysia develops the necessary human capital. This also means that developing and motivating teachers will be the focus towards driving improvements in student outcomes and schools and principals will be made increasingly accountable for students performance. This idea means that the government has finally realized that the talents that the Malaysia has produced has gone to other more profitable countries where they talents are being sought after and only mediocre talents are moving into Malaysia from countries that does not even want them. The sixth big idea of 10Mp is Ensuring equality of opportunities and safeguarding the vulnerable. Under the 10MP, the government will focus on 2.4 million households that make up the bottom 40 per cent of the countrys poor. Special attention will be given to Bumiputeras in Sabah and Sarawak as well as the Orang Asli. This idea has been in the past Malaysia Plans for so long. This idea is put into the plan so that the poor people of this country will be help by the government to elevate their level and take them out of their poor. This will effectively lower the number of poor in the country thus making sure that the country will move forward to a better future. The seventh big idea of 10MP is Concentrated growth, inclusive development. This idea underlines the major new developments such as an international financial district, redevelopment of Sungai Besi airport, township development in Sungai Buloh, establishing a world-class integrated convention facility in Jalan Duta and a Malaysia Truly Asia center. Major investments in public transport include the expansion of the Kuala Lumpur light rail transit coverage and the implementation of a high-capacity mass rapid transit system. In addition, the government proposes to introduce enbloc mechanism to facilitate redevelopment of collectively owned property and land. As such in all Malaysia Plan, there is the development or

redevelopment of one area or the other. This development should elevate the level of our country. Another big idea of the 10MP is Supporting effective and smart partnerships. In this idea, the government will set up a RM20 billion fund to spur private investments in nationally strategic areas. The government also proposes a new wave of privatization and a partnership to drive the development of industrial parks and incubators and co-invest with the private sector in high-growth and strategic sectors through government fund agencies such as Malaysian Venture Capital Management Bhd. and Ekuiti Nasional Bhd. This idea is one of the ideas that facilitate and prioritize the private sectors so that they will help our country. One of the big ideas of the 10MP is Valuing our environmental endowments. This idea means that during the 10MP period, the energy policy will move towards market pricing of gas by 2015 while water tariffs will be restructured towards full cost recovery. It will also provide fiscal incentives and funding for green technology investments, promote eligible projects for carbon credits and spur eco-tourism. This idea focuses on the fact that our most of our country spending are squandered away on energy management and production. By investing in green technology, the spending can be reduced in the long run. One other big idea of the 10MP is Government as a competitive corporation. This idea states that the government needs to increasingly act like a competitive corporation and will focus on customers and the private sector. It will also endeavor to improve its finances in terms of getting value for money on expenditure and ensure sustainability of public finances. This idea means that the government will be restructured so that they can support high income economy when we our country reach that point.

In a nutshell, the Tenth Malaysia Plan is a plan that will increase the success of our country while reducing the unnecessary part. The plan was introduced so that it can facilitate the change of our country towards being a high-income country.

Role and Responsibilities of Engineers in 10MP

The Tenth Malaysia Plan (10MP) contains 7 chapters which engineers have responsibilities in all of them. In chapter 1 (charting development towards a high income nation), engineers play very important role in part 4 which is unleashing productivity-led growth and innovation. According to the plan, Malaysias economic growth was driven by factor accumulation capital (investments), energy (cheap fuel) and labour (both domestic and foreign but largely low skills). An engineer must multiply their effort in research and development in spreading the use of alternative fuel such as biodiesel and alternative sources of energy such as solar energy and biomass energy. An engineer must also get involved on skills development of labour by providing training to lower-skilled workers to increase work quality and improving productivity. Other than that, in part 9 (valuing our environmental endowments), by introduction of feed-in-tariff program that help renewable energy investments, engineers are expected to sustain our natural endowments by utilizing green energy for present development needs without compromising the future. Engineers must also focus on adaptation strategies to ensure sustainable growth and mitigation strategies to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. In chapter 2 (building on the nations strengths), engineers will face enormous challenges in becoming a high-income nation by 2020. Building on the strengths and success of the past, Malaysia is now in a favorable position to propel the nation towards high-income status. Engineers must support this vision by creating an environment for unleashing economic growth. Engineering firms will strengthen private sector and provide job opportunities that is beneficial to the nations economy. Engineers must also develop and retaining a first-world talent base by equipping themselves with latest technological and engineering breakthroughs that can increase their value as a professional engineer that has very high expertise in certain areas. This knowledge also can be spread to engineering students in local universities by organizing workshop and talks to produce more marketable young engineers.

In chapter 3 (creating the environment for unleashing economic growth), engineers can contribute in the governments aim to support innovation-led growth. As government deliberately creates incentives for Malaysian company to invest in innovation, engineers also must act to create innovation opportunities. By inventing and innovating new products, local engineers can attract more local and foreign investors to invest in the science and technology field development. Besides that, in order to establish world-class infrastructure to support growth and enhance productivity, engineers play a very major role to encouraging industries to expand into high value-added activities. The main infrastructure in focus is high speed broadband internet to increase broadband penetration in Malaysia. It is a responsibility for communications engineers working for Malaysias Internet Service Providers (ISP) to devise an economic and effective way to spread high speed broadband access to rural areas without discrimination. A number of technologies are available to implement this, such as 4G WiMAX and 4G LTE to wirelessly provide wireless internet access beside the widely use of fibre optics technology. Recently, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has announced the allocation of 2600MHz spectrum band for Malaysians to enjoy 4G LTE services that can offer internet speed to up to 100Mbps. This can be seen as a healthy update to increase broadband penetration in Malaysia with a lower cost. Another infrastructure improvements needed is Multimodal Transport Network, rail development, maritime infrastructure and airport development.

For the 4th chapter (moving towards inclusive socio-economic development), engineers can enhance bumiputra economic participation. Since the 2nd Malaysia Plan, the government has continuously provided programmes to enhance bumiputra participation in the economy. Engineers can strengthen bumiputra entrepreneurship to help create competitive business in high-impact sectors. To do so, engineers must possesses good engineering ethics in completing tasks and jobs, as well as avoiding from giving or receiving bribes. When the engineers image is clean and honest, it can promote bumiputra representation in high paying jobs through enhanced capability building and demand-side incentives. In chapter 5 (developing and retaining a first-world talent base), engineers can contribute to revamp the education system to raise student outcomes. Software engineers can help Ministry of Education to develop interactive teaching module effective to increase students performance. New approach to teach in school can lift performance of all schools with the use of new technologies. Introduction of tablet PCs as well as smartphones can change the environment of education in a positive way, and the responsibility to utilize these gadgets properly in education fall on shoulders of engineers. Besides that, engineers can organize a program to approach students in school to share their success story and motivate them on the importance choosing the right career path and becoming great future leaders. Under the plan attracting and developing top talent in teaching, engineering graduates can become teachers in schools and also lecturers in higher learning institutes. Engineers in depth understanding of things and strong analytical ways to solve problems can significantly improve students outcomes and develop a strong performance culture. This chapter also emphasizes the need to raise the skills of Malaysians to increase employability, mainly by mainstreaming the quality technical education and vocational training. Engineers can contribute by becoming highly effective instructors as most engineers has hands on experience in technical tasks as well as deep understanding in them. Engineers also by their experience can upgrade and harmonise

technical education and vocational training curriculum quality to be in line with industry requirements. In chapter 6 Building an Environment That Enhances Quality of Life, engineers carry a big responsibility in developing a rakyat-centric public transport system. The goal of this aim is to increase the capacity of public transport system, stimulating demands; diverting heavy vehicles from central business districts, regulatory restructuring of transport industry and managing demand to reduce private vehicle usage. Several efforts have already showing early signs of success such as four bus expressway transit routes in Greater KL, eight sets of four-car trains on the Kelana Jaya LRT line and the completion of Integrate Transport Terminal (ITT/TBS) in Bandar Tasik Selatan and construction of new ITT in Gombak. Besides that, engineers must help to provide efficient public utilities and services. Engineers are responsible to manage water endowment and supply by developing a long-term strategy for water resource management to achieve water security; restructure the water services industry and protecting rivers from pollution. Electrical engineers on the other hand must ensure the reliability of electrical supply by increasing generation capacity. In Peninsular Malaysia two hydroelectric plants will be commissioned during the Plan period in Ulu Jelai and Hulu Terengganu with a combined capacity of 622 MW; In Sabah three new power plants will be commissioned with a combined capacity of 700 MW. These include two gas-based power plants in the west coast, and one coal-based power. In Sarawak the 2,400 MW Bakun Hydroelectric Project will be commissioned in stages.

In 7th chapter of 10th Malaysia Plan (transforming government to transform Malaysia), engineers are advised to combat corruption for effective delivery. An engineer must practice transparency in all government tenders and avoid bribery to win tender bidding. If corruption is present in a government project, the project might be completed late than actual date or completed in sub-par quality. Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC/SPRM) is present to fight corruption, but a professional engineer must have a feeling of self-consciousness to acquire tenders or completing tasks honestly.

REFERENCES 1. New Straits Times, Friday, June 11, 2010. 2. 10th Malaysia Plan, Economic Planning Unit Prime Minister Putrajaya, 2010. 3. http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/Econ2007_pdf/10th%20Malay sia%20Plan%202011-2015. 4. Tenth Malaysia Plan 2011-2015 (Speech by Prime Minister in the Dewan Rakyat on 10th June 2010)