A new economic model in Malaysia

SINGAPORE: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak on Tuesday announced plans for a “New Economic Model (NEM),” raising prospects of a fair deal for all racial groups. The “NEM roadmap for the future” would now be blueprinted, Mr. Najib said in a policy speech at an investment seminar in Kuala Lumpur.

The hallmark of the earlier New Economic Policy was an accent on affirmative action for the benefit of the majority-Malays and other sons of the soil for setting right some historical economic imbalances.

The NEM, he said, was being designed to “change the perception that non- Bumiputeras have not benefited from the progress made to date, although facts and figures show otherwise.”

Majority

Malay-Muslims and Malaysia's indigenous people constitute the majority Bumiputeras, while ethnic Chinese and people of Indian origin are the main minorities.

A renewed affirmative action policy would form an integral part of the proposed NEM. S. Subramaniam, a high-ranking ethnic-Indian Minister in Mr. Najib's Cabinet, later told The Hindu from Kuala Lumpur that the three “important principles” of the planned NEM were higher incomes for all over time and inclusive as also sustainable economic growth.