ETP has 'catch-all' function
The Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) not only includes new projects and investments, as popularly believed, but existing ones as well.
The Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) not only includes new projects and investments, as popularly believed, but existing ones as well.
Minister in the P
rime Minister’s Department Idris Jala (centre in photo) explained this today after announcing nine more entry point projects (EPPs) under the ETP.
He said this is because “transforming the economy means including the whole economy”.
“A lot of people miss the point. They say we are announcing old projects…We embrace all projects, the old, current and new but what is needed is a new way,” said Idris, who is also chief of the Performance and Management Delivery Unit (Pemandu).
He was responding to a question directed to representatives of Tanjong Agas Supply Base & Marine Services Sdn Bhd (TASBMS) and Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB), which are project owners of two EPPs.
These include the Tanjong Agas Oil and Gas and Logistics Industrial Park, the Ulu Jerai and Hulu Terengganu hydroelectric dams and the Manjung power plant extension, which was directly awarded to TNB and will be ready by March 2015.
The Ulu Jerai and Hulu
Terengganu dams will be ready by 2015 and 2016 respectively and will have a capacity of 622MW combined.
All projects were already in the pipeline prior to the announcement of the ETP and the national key economic area laboratories in June and July.
TASBMS chief executive officer Mohd Azman Shahidin had earlier said that the ETP comes at a good time as the company is “in the midst of implementing the project” for which the groundbreaking was done last year.
“The ETP was timely and we were in line with Pemandu’s efforts, but we would have still proceeded as (the decision was made) based on market demand,” he said, pointing out also that Pemandu has been helpful in facilitating the project.
Clarifying Mohd Azman’s answer, Idris said that old or existing projects are included in the EPP list, they are “fully optimised” through clustering and private-public collaboration.
“For the Tanjong Agas project, there will be companies desirous of setting up a plant. They will come to (the Malaysian Investment Development Agency or Mida) and Pemandu. If they fit the bill, we will bring them to Tanjong Agas,” he said.
It is not immediately known how many of the 131 EPPs are already in existence or were in the pipeline prior to the ETP.
Latest EPP list
A project announced today which appeared to have been conceived through the laboratories, is the training of private pre-school teachers by private trainers, with the government bearing the cost.
In a first for Malaysia, the government is paying RM11.4 million to 10 institutions including Segi College, Institut Megatech, Institut Perkembangan Awal Kanak-kanak and Kolej Uniti. They were selected via open bidding to train 3,439 pre-school teachers in 10 states this year.
Other projects and developments announced by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today are:
- Mida-Cisco collaboration to train 1,000 workers in Penang in using high-end technology (Investment amount unknown)
- UCSI University hospitality and tourism cluster, investing in a five-star hotel in Sarawak and a convention and resort in Klang Valley (Total investment RM650 million, expected to generate RM618 million in gross national income (GNI) by 2020)
- Enhancing business tourism through Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) (Total investment: RM50 million. GNI: RM3.9 million)
- Refurbishment of Majestic Hotel by YTL Hotels (Total investment: RM250 million. GNI: RM618 million)
- Advanced engineering cluster by Techology Park Malaysia in collaboration with Universiti Tenaga Nasional and Multimedia University (Total investment: RM374 million. GNI: RM636 million)
- Petroleum incentive proposed by Petronas, including investment tax allowance of between 60 -90 percent of capital expenditure deducted against statutory income to encourage development in high capital projects like high pressure high temperature exploration (Tax trade-off: RM8.1 billion. GNI: RM50 billion)
However, Petronas executive director Wee Yiaw Hin said it is unknown when the new incentives will take effect, as they have to be gazetted under the Petroleum Income Tax Act.
