Economic highlights of the 13th Malaysia Plan 2026-2030

 

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim received the 13MP document from Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan at Seri Perdana, Putrajaya. - Photo: AFIQ HAMBALI / Prime Minister's Office

KUALA LUMPUR: The following are the economic highlights of the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP) 2026-2030 which was tabled by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Parliament today, with the theme "Melakar Semua Pembangunan” (Redesigning Development).”

- Investments of RM611 billion required to successfully implement 13MP

- Development allocation from the government is estimated at RM430 billion, with RM227 billion to be channelled to the economic sector.  

- Gross domestic product (GDP) growth is targeted at 4.5-5.5 per cent annually, to be led by domestic demand, particularly private consumption and investment 

- Average real private investment is expected to grow by 6.0 per cent per year, while average real public investment is projected to grow by 3.6 per cent per year. 

- RM120 billion will be allocated for national development investment for 2026-2030. 

- The federal government's fiscal deficit is expected to gradually decrease to below 3.0 per cent of GDP, with government debt not exceeding 60 per cent of GDP.  

- The average inflation rate is expected to remain stable between 2.0 per cent and 3.0 per cent annually. 

- Gross National Income (GNI) per capita is targeted to increase to RM77,200. 

- Gross exports are expected to grow by 5.8 per cent annually, with broader trade opportunities.

- Gross imports are expected to moderate to 6.1 per cent per year from 2026-2030, compared to 14.4 per cent during the first four years of 12MP. 

- The trade balance is expected to remain positive at RM116.3 billion, with a current account surplus of 2.2 per cent of GNI by 2030. 

- Malaysia aims for Electrical & Electronics product exports to approach RM1 trillion by 2030. 

- The government targets to increase halal export value to RM80 billion, with the halal industry contributing 11 per cent to GDP by 2030. 

- The manufacturing sector is projected to grow by 5.8 per cent per year. 

- RM61 billion will be allocated for development projects under public-private partnership (PPP).

- The services sector is projected to grow by 5.2 per cent per year. 

- The agriculture sector is expected to grow by 1.5 per cent per year. 

- The mining and quarrying sector is projected to expand by 2.8 per cent annually from 2026-2030, supported by increased production of natural gas and crude oil. 

- By 2030, Malaysia aspires to become a high-income nation and be among the world’s top 30 economies. 

- Malaysia must rise quickly to lead in technology and produce world-class ‘Made by Malaysia’ products and services by 2030. 

- Malaysia sets a direction to lead the Southeast Asian economy in artificial intelligence (AI), digital technology, and renewable energy, aspiring to be an influential global player. 

- The National AI Action Plan 2030 will drive talent development, research, and commercialisation of technology to support broad AI adoption. 

- Implementation of NIMP 2030 (New Industrial Master Plan), NSS (National Science Strategy), and NETR (National Energy Transition Roadmap) will be intensified in 13MP to drive inclusive and sustainable economic growth. 

- The government is considering nuclear energy as one of the clean, competitive, and safe energy sources. 

- Malaysia targets to increase the share of installed capacity to 35 per cent by 2030 from 29 per cent at present.

- The government is committed to accelerating the development of the rare earth industry, in cooperation with state governments.

- The government will strengthen the green economy through various initiatives. 

- Focus will be placed on strengthening economic integration through Free Trade Agreements (FTA) and resuming Malaysia-EU (European Union) negotiations. 

- Malaysia’s participation in FTAs such as Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and Malaysia-Turkey FTA (MTFTA) will be enhanced to expand markets and strengthen trade relations. 

- Malaysia will continue to leverage BRICS and ASEAN to reduce dependency on existing trade partners. - Bernama 

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Google is reaping rewards of its unfair AI advantage

 

Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s CEO. — Bloomberg

WITH two billion monthly users in 200 countries, Google’s AI Overviews can claim to be the most popular generative artificial-intelligence (AI) product yet released to the public.

The short summaries generated by the company’s Gemini AI model have turned Google from search engine to answer engine, settling the nerves of investors who were worried that ChatGPT was going to smash Google’s business model to pieces.

Then again, to describe those billions as “users,” as parent company Alphabet Inc did when announcing its quarterly earnings last week, is perhaps disingenuous.

No one consciously uses AI Overviews – it’s just there when users perform a regular search on Google, something billions of them have done several times a day for two decades.

That’s one key advantage Google has over its competitors: People already associate the service with finding things out.

The company has every right to capitalise on that reputation, one it built off the back of genuine innovation and quality (though, admittedly, it was later solidified with illegal multibillion-dollar deals to prevent competition).

Google’s second advantage with AI Overviews, however, warrants further scrutiny.

Like other generative AI tools, the feature draws heavily from content that Google does not own but is available on the open web.

Summarised answers are synthesised from one or more sources into a rewritten piece of information.

That’s useful for users; it saves them a click.

But it’s devastating for content creators, who lose a would-be visitor and the revenues that follow.

Startling Pew Research data released last week suggested users were considerably less likely to click through to websites if presented with an AI Overview, as is increasingly the case.

One in five searches in a March 2025 sampling contained an AI Overview, a frequency that rises to as high as 60% if the queries are longer or contain the bread-and-butter words of journalism: who, what, where, when or why.

Google has pushed back against the methodology of the Pew study, saying its dataset – 68,879 searches by 900 US adults – was too small to be representative. Other AI chatbots offer the same kind of functionality, of course.

But in those cases, content publishers can block these companies’ “crawlers” if they wish to do so by adding a line of code that acts as a digital bouncer at the door.

That approach doesn’t work with Google, however, because blocking its AI crawler means also blocking a site from Google’s search results as well – a death sentence for any website.

Dominant position

Google is leveraging its dominant position in one industry to force success in another.

It’s monopolistic behaviour and something that should be addressed immediately as part of the remedies being devised as part of the antitrust trial it lost last year.

This is about taking away Google’s cheat code.

“Google still thinks they’re special and that they don’t have to play by the same rules that the rest of the industry does,” Matthew Prince, chief executive officer of Cloudflare, told Bloomberg News in an interview last week.

New tool

His company recently launched a tool that would allow publishers to set up a “pay-per-crawl” model for AI use.

It works on crawlers from OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity and most others – but blocking Google AI would, again, mean blocking a site from Google’s search engine.

In Google’s defence, the launch of AI Overviews was a move spurred not by a desire to crush the economics of web – which has driven its entire business –but to stop its users from deserting the company in favor of AI chatbots.

“The consumer is forcing them,” Wells Fargo analyst Ken Gawrelski said.

Google was more than satisfied with the status quo, Gawrelski told me, which is partly why the company was beaten to market by smaller AI firms that didn’t need to worry about protecting an existing revenue stream.

Now the fight is on, Google is playing catch-up and doing rather well at it.

It has protected its advertising revenue, which in the last quarter was up 12% to a record-high US$54.2bil compared with the period a year earlier.

Supply constraints

Its AI and cloud business faces supply constraints, warranting an additional US$10bil in capital expenditure, bringing it to US$85bil for the year.

It recently added “AI Mode” to its search engine, which is like AI Overviews on steroids.

The company has barely started to integrate AI across its varied products like Gmail and Maps – the Financial Times noted that 15 distinct Google products have more than 500 million users.

Executives said they will be able to monetise all of these innovations quickly.

The company has less to say about what happens to the businesses that rely on Google traffic to stay alive, in turn providing the content that makes smart AI possible.

The shift is profound: Google’s creation democratised the web, making it possible for an ecosystem of new sites and services to be found and supported.

Now, the company’s strategy is to make it so users need to visit only Google.

“We have to solve the business models for the varying players involved,” Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s CEO, said in a call with analysts without elaborating.

AI wreckage

Salvaging content creators from the coming AI wreckage begins by forcing Google to relinquish its unfair advantage.

Only then will the company be compelled to enter into reasonable arrangements with content creators to utilise their content, as it has already done with the likes of Reddit.

We can be mildly encouraged by the fact that Google is reportedly seeking out content deals for use within its other AI products. Perhaps this is in anticipation that the unfair advantage won’t last. — Bloomberg

Dave Lee is Bloomberg Opinion’s US technology columnist. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.

Cambodia and Thailand hold trilateral informal meeting in Shanghai, China

 

An An informal trilateral meeting among China, Cambodia, and Thailand was held in Shanghai on July 30, 2025. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong, along with representatives from Cambodia and Thailand, attended the meeting. Photo: Courtesy of the Chinese Foreign Ministry 

An informal trilateral meeting among China, Cambodia and Thailand was held in Shanghai on Wednesday. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong, along with representatives from Cambodia and Thailand, attended the meeting, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. 

Both Cambodia and Thailand reaffirmed their commitment to the ceasefire consensus and expressed appreciation for China's positive role in de-escalating the situation. The meeting was conducted in an open, friendly and cordial atmosphere, the ministry said.

It is China's latest diplomatic effort to facilitate the implementation of the ceasefire and create conditions for quickly restoring peace and stability along the Cambodia-Thailand border, Guo Jiakun, spokesperson from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told a press conference on Wednesday. 

Thailand and Cambodia agreed on Monday to an "immediate and unconditional" ceasefire to end the border clashes starting at midnight on Monday, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said, as the leaders of the two countries met in Malaysia after the conflict entered the fifth day, according to media reports.

Observation teams are to be deployed on Wednesday to monitor the implementation of a ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand, Cambodian Defense Ministry Undersecretary of State and spokesperson Lieutenant General Maly Socheata said, the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

Socheata said in a press briefing on Wednesday that Malaysia, current chair of ASEAN, sent a high-level delegation led by Malaysian Armed Forces Chief of Defense Forces General Datuk Haji Mohd Nizam Bin Haji Jaffar to Cambodia on Tuesday, per Xinhua. 

However, Thailand's military accused Cambodian forces on Wednesday of breaching a ceasefire agreement at three separate locations along the disputed border, warning that continued aggression could compel Thai forces to respond more decisively, according to Reuters. 

ASEAN's role in facilitating the ceasefire agreement is undoubtedly commendable, Ge Hongliang, deputy director of the College of ASEAN Studies at Guangxi University for Nationalities, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

It has also created a valuable and favorable environment for Cambodia and Thailand to eventually resolve their border conflicts, Ge said. 

With observers present, the ceasefire is likely to be implemented. However, it still depends on whether the two sides can engage in dialogue and rebuild mutual trust in the future, Ge added.

China practices the Global Security Initiative, promotes the building of a model of security for Asia featuring common security, seeking common ground while shelving differences, and dialogue and consultation, and stays committed to keeping the region peaceful and stable. China does not seek any selfish gains on the matter, and supports ASEAN in facilitating a political settlement of the situation between Cambodia and Thailand through the ASEAN way, Guo said. 

We stand ready to continue to maintain close communication with regional countries, namely Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia, to play a constructive role for cementing the ceasefire and restoring peace and stability at an early date, Guo said.

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Cut red tape, let business grow’, 13MP must clear the way for private sector growth, say economists

Rafizi Ramli speaking during the engagement session at the MBSA Convention Centre, Shah Alam. - NSTP/ FAIZ ANUAR

KUALA LUMPUR: The government is planning to expedite the completion of the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP) within just seven months, a significant reduction compared with the two-year preparation time for previous national plans.

Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said the government is working towards presenting the draft of 13MP to Parliament by July 2025.

He said this ambitious timeline is driven by the need to ensure Malaysia's socio-economic blueprint for 2026-2030 is ready well ahead of schedule to address the nation's evolving challenges.

"We want to set a new record. In the past, preparing a Malaysia Plan would take up to two years.

13MP must clear the way for private sector growth, say economists

PETALING JAYA: The 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP) must help steer the country’s transition towards becoming a high income nation by 2030 with emphasis on greater private sector participation and less bureaucratic red tape, say economists.

Sunway University economics professor Dr Yeah Kim Leng is of the view that the 13MP must be in tune with the World Bank’s definition of a high-income nation.

“It is important to accelerate economic growth so that the income gap with other high-­income countries continues to narrow.

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“The plans must also include pressing ahead with the required educational, health, infrastructu­ral and environmental development that underpin a dynamic and resilient economy,” he said in an interview.

The 13MP, which is to be unveiled in Parliament on Thursday, will chart a strategic road map for the nation’s economy for the next five years.

The plan, said Dr Yeah, should also contain mechanisms and poli­cies to help Malaysia shift towards a value added tech­nology and innovation-driven economy where private sector participation is crucial.

“There is also a need for policies to increase revenue mobilisation to keep abreast of the need for higher government spending while simultaneously raising spending efficiency and service delivery effectiveness.

“This can be achieved through digitalisation and technology adoption, especially the use of artificial intelligence.”

The economic roadmap, he noted, must include the streamlining and restructuring of govern­ment linked companies and state-owned enterprises.

“This will help unlock the country’s full economic potential through stronger investment, entrepreneurship and private sector-led growth,” he added.

Economist Geoffrey Williams said the 13MP should focus on reducing the role and interference of government in existing business and commercial areas and leaving these to the private sector.

“The government should focus on areas that are the direct legitimate concern of government, including public health, education and social protection.

“Regulations should be slashed and focused only on minimum standards of health and safety, anti-corruption, good governance and anti-trust issues,” he said.

The 13MP, he added, must take into account social issues, with the creation of sustainable living income levels in the form of a Universal Basic Income and a Universal Basic Pension.

“These must support policies to raise incomes through meaningful work with a fair share of value created going to emplo­yees.

“Free higher education should be a priority through the reform of the higher education system and replacing National Higher Education Fund Corporation loans with a sustainable financial system,” said Williams.

The recent changes in the ­global economic landscape is also a factor that should be addressed under the MP13, he pointed out.

“The United States tariff issue has given us a lesson that protectionist policies come with reciprocal costs.

“So removing restrictions to market access should be a priority for 13MP,” he said.

Economist Prof Emeritus Barjoyai Bardai said over-­reliance on a purely capitalistic approach with regards to foreign direct investment has resulted in less than 200,000 companies controlling over 80% of the economy.

He said there should be a shift towards developing the nation’s micro-small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) which make up 65% of the nation’s manpower or some three-million workers.

The 13MP, he said, must also ensure the development of the nation’s semi-conductor industry, which currently ranks seventh globally.

Strategic Institute for Asia Pacific senior economic advisor Dr Anthony Dass said the 13MP must shift from the post Covid-19 recovery period to one of economic transformation to drive high-value growth, particularly in the digital and green economy.

This, he said, must be coupled by inclusive development and fiscal reform, adding that efforts must also be carried out to boost high-tech investment while accelerating upskilling and technical and vocational education and training.

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13MP must clear the way for private sector growth, say economists
PETALING JAYA: The 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP) must help steer the country’s transition towards becoming a high income nation by 2030 with emphasis on greater private sector participation and less bureaucratic red tape, say economists.