KUALA LUMPUR: The government should not focus on the country's gross domestic product (GDP) alone to measure the nation's wellness but also measure the people's well-being holistically, say experts.
To an audience at the 10th Malaysia Statistics Conference today (Sept 26), they also said indicators like the people's quality of life such as better life expectancy and sustainable environment goals are beyond the GDP.
The conference, themed "Looking Beyond GDP: Towards Social Wellbeing and Environmental Sustainability", at Sasana Kijang here was opened by Deputy Economy Minister Datuk Hanifah Hajar Taib.
"There is a need for more detailed and granular data to ensure that there is less wastage in government allocations and increase the efficiency of government expenditure," said Hanifah in her opening speech.
She also said that Malaysians could look forward to more access to data in January 2024 when the integrated database compiling 200 others would be made available to the public.
"There is a need for accurate and timely data to prepare for floods, disasters and such," said Hanifah.
At the conference, Datuk Dr Richard Leete - former United Nations Resident Coordinator for Malaysia and United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei - stated that it is important for a government not to have "utopian goals".
Leete, who was instrumental in setting up the Statistics Department and had been advisor to a number of Malaysian governments since 2016, said that for a nation to be regarded as being well, prosperity must be shared fairly.
"Traditionally national prosperity is defined and measured using GDP per capita but material living standards alone are inadequate for defining and measuring achievement of national development goals.
"Economic prosperity can be accompanied by challenges, such as rising inequality, environmental degradation, and other negative externalities," he added.
Leete pointed out that well-being has multiple dimensions consisting of both material and quality of life dimensions than mere GDP per capita.
Earlier, in his welcome speech, Statistics Department Malaysia chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said that while they were ready to prepare monthly GDP reports to assist the government to gauge the nation's development, the indicators are still wanting.
"GDP can only measure the economics, it does not take into account the indicators for social well-being and environmental sustainability.
"This does not allow economists to predict a global financial economic crisis such as the one that happened in 2008.
"Indicators to measure the well-being of the people are beyond the GDP indicators," said Mohd Uzir.
Among the indicators he mentioned were accessibility to clean air and drinkable water.
He said the department is continually modifying the mechanism to improve the indicators.
"This includes adding variables in the census and surveys such as the Nasional Households Indicators Survey, which compiles information on demography and socio-economic characteristics of the people," said Mohd Uzir.
