An Indonesian worker sits beside palm oil fruits on a lorry at Felda Bukit Cerakah in the district of Klang, outside Kuala Lumpur in this April 16, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Samsul Said/Files
KUALA LUMPUR: The World Bank expects Malaysia to record 4.7% growth this year and close to 4.2% in 2016 before gradually rising again in 2017, said its chief economist (East Asia and Pacific Region) Sudhir Shetty.
He said while Malaysia’s current policies provided a good base, to navigate the global uncertainties, it needed to consider further improving public sector performance, accelerate human capital development and re-engineer economic growth.
“The 11th Malaysia Plan is appropriately ambitious but the goals will be challenging to attain especially in an uncertain global environment.
“Structural reforms need to be undertaken to enhance medium-term development prospects,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the 10th Asia Economic Summit in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
Earlier, Shetty gave a presentation on ‘Navigating the Global Uncertainties: Challenges and Opportunities for Malaysia’ at the forum organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute.
He said Malaysia was going through an adjustment process in the face of lower commodity prices.
“In the long term, it has to address the structural issues the economy faces, like education and skills, performance of the public sector and improving the services sector,” he said.
Shetty said to raise revenue in the short term, the Government needed to reduce corporate tax, limit the exemptions for the goods and services tax and expand the base of the personal income tax.
He said the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement would bring economic benefits to Malaysia.
On the ringgit, he said, the decline had helped the country’s economy to adjust to the fall in commodity prices. - Bernama
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