NCIA upbeat on 11MP’s focus on inclusiveness, reengineering economic growth

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GEORGE TOWN: The Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) is upbeat on the Eleventh Malaysia Plan’s (11MP) focus on inclusiveness and the reengineering of economic growth.

Its chief executive, Datuk Redza Rafiq Abdul Razak, said the 11MP themed ‘Anchoring Growth on People’ flows seamlessly with NCIA’s agenda of growth with social equity.

He said the focus on investment inflows and job creation would continue to be the mainstay of NCIA’s private sector-led development.

“We will continue to see the Government’s regional approach to economic growth, where each economic region provides unique value propositions to the nation,” he told Bernama when contacted yesterday.

He said 40 years of evolution that Malaysia has had in the semiconductor industry had created a set of critical, engineering-based baseline skills, while the electrical and electronics sector would continue to be developed.

The five-year (2016-2020) plan was tabled by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday.

Redza Rafiq said these had allowed the region to move seamlessly into new industries such as the automotive and aeronautical sectors.

“We will see more of these two sectors being developed in conjunction with the new growth nodes in the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER),” he said.

However, he said the focus on the bottom 40 per cent or B40 income group to middle-class society would also be manifesting itself in the programmes in the NCER.

“This will see new innovative development initiatives to be launched next year,” he added.

NCIA is the authority responsible for providing direction and for devising policies and strategies in relation to socio-economic development in the NCER, which encompasses 21 districts in northern Peninsular Malaysia states of Kedah, Perak, Perlis and Penang. — Bernama