The Ministry of Economy Rafizi Ramli welcomed the country’s economic growth for the first quarter of 2023 which recorded a growth of 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. This achievement was better than the forecast of economic analysts who placed a growth of 4.9% for the quarter.
“While this growth exceeded general expectations, I am well aware that the country is facing global economic challenges that will continue to affect demand for Malaysian exports, especially in the coming quarters,” said Rafizi.
Considering these challenges, the government and the country need to take the opportunity from this resilient economic growth momentum to continue focusing on economic structuring, which will reduce Malaysia’s exposure to Malaysia’s economic challenges in the future.
Some of the economic restructuring measures that have been underway and will be accelerated are:
1/ Structuring the energy sector to shift the energy mix to renewable energy. The government has announced several new policies this month including allowing the export of cross-border renewable energy and an initial allocation of RM50 million to speed up the installation of solar on government buildings.
The next announcement that will be made in the near future is the government’s measures to simplify and spread the use of solar in domestic homes to encourage more households to have solar facilities.
This coincides with the government’s decision to target electricity subsidies so that electricity subsidies are maintained for the B40 and M40 groups; while the group of residential users from T20 who use electricity at a high rate will start paying at a tariff closer to the market price.
This integrated approach, which is by facilitating and encouraging the installation of solar to a group of households that can afford it, is expected to help offset the impact of tariff increases on high-income households (estimated to be around 10% of the majority of households in Malaysia).
2/ The transition of the government’s socio-economic policy from an income-based approach (B40, M40 and T20) to an approach based on household’s net disposable income.
The government’s announcement on the establishment of the Main Data Base (PADU) is expected to accelerate the government’s transition to develop programs and initiatives based on the household’s net spendable income position.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economy will coordinate with the ministries and agencies so that the government will speed up the implementation of people-friendly projects throughout the country as part of efforts to help the country’s economic growth, while the new projects approved in the 2023 Budget begin implemented.