Friday March 31, 2006
The making of the Plan
By SIM LEOI LEOI
AS MALAYSIANS go about studying every detail in the 9MP, they should know that the process of putting together this comprehensive blueprint took over a year and involved hundreds of meetings.
As early as October 2004, Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Samsudin Osman had issued a circular on guidelines for preparing proposals of projects from each ministry, agency, department and state government.
Besides proposals, civil servants were also told to prepare reports on the status of projects under the Eighth Malaysia Plan (8MP) to serve as additional input for the planning of programmes.
The circular also explained the broad outlines and policies of the 9MP as well its core thrusts and strategies and criteria for selection of projects.
 |
Samsudin accompanying Abdullah as the Prime Minister arrives for the PM’s Department’s monthly assembly in Putrajaya recently. |
However, before the EPU could get down to actually drawing up the 9MP, the inter-agency planning groups (IAPGs) had to meet first.
An IAPG is made up of senior officials from relevant ministries and agencies and set up to deliberate on issues such as education and hardcore poverty.
Proceeds of these meetings were then discussed again more specifically by the technical working groups.
At this stage, besides officials from the relevant ministries and agencies, representatives from academia, non-government organisations and the private sector may also be invited.
The two levels of meetings were the main channels of ideas from civil servants to the EPU on what should go into the 9MP.
Throughout January and February last year, the Government began hosting a series of seminars and negotiations, some of them attended by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi himself, with various stakeholders such as corporate bodies and non-governmental organisations.
This provided the EPU with more input and gave it an opportunity to review the success of some previous projects and, possibly, devise new strategies.
The seminars also give implementation agencies, particularly those at state and district levels, a chance to be heard.
It was only after all this that the actual writing of the 9MP began and the process lasted until August.
During this time, EPU officers were also checking the numerous project proposals against allocations set aside for the plan – initial allocations put the cap at RM150bil, compared with RM170bil for the 8MP.
Once the blueprint had undergone the necessary editing and translation, the first draft was handed to the National Develop- ment Planning Committee, chaired by Samsudin and ultimately responsible for projects under the plan.
After the committee had gone through the draft, it was forwarded to the Cabinet for the final stamp of endorsement. Detail of the plan were scrutinised by the Cabinet in November and December.
The printing of the 9MP began in January so as to be in time for its tabling in Parliament yesterday.
News Poll
- Court ruling takes bite out of local council summonses
- Chin Peng apologises for death of innocents
- Teoh's second autopsy completed, reburied Tuesday (Update)
- Girl and stepmum held over bid to kill first wife
- Biggest karaoke session a blast
- New evidence on MCA snoop squad case arrives at doorstep
- Victim’s dad nabs kidnapper
- Teoh’s body exhumed for second autopsy today
- Foreigner falls to her death from condominium
- Malaysians must get regular dental checks
- Court ruling takes bite out of local council summonses
- Chin Peng apologises for death of innocents
- Malaysians must get regular dental checks
- Interpol bust online illegal pharmacy racket
- Big impact in ‘small’ man’s win
- No licence to try offenders
- Teoh's second autopsy completed, reburied Tuesday (Update)
- New evidence on MCA snoop squad case arrives at doorstep
- Stop blanket approval for outsourcing, says union
- Waive housing loans for medically boarded out govt staff: Cuepacs
RSS
