KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 — The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) has urged the government to address the fragmentation and duplication of programmes and initiatives to support its fiscal consolidation initiatives aimed at reducing the fiscal deficit.
FMM president Tan Sri Soh Thian Lai said fragmentation in government programmes and initiatives has led to waste and inefficiency due to uncoordinated efforts, multiple programmes and initiatives frequently aimed at the same target groups, and misaligned resource allocation.
Areas affected by the fragmented initiatives include investment promotion and technical and vocational education and training (TVET).
“FMM has always held the position that there is a need to re-engineer all investment promotion agencies throughout the country under one single body with a centralised, coordinated, and well-facilitated investment promotion framework, ideally the Malaysian Investment Promotion Agency (Mida),” he said in a statement today.
Soh added that Malaysia’s TVET landscape ecosystem is highly fragmented, with over 11 Ministries and close to 1,300 TVET providers.
“This has resulted in the overlap of jurisdiction and standards, duplication of programmes, and misalignment of funding of TVET institutions,” he said.
The FMM president said another area affected concerned digital and technology blueprints.
“There have been over ten technology blueprints since 2010, many of which carried out policies and strategies without the accompanying implementation and execution action plans and with overlaps.
“FMM strongly believes there must be a comprehensive strategy for implementing the many policies and blueprints, including a possible review of the policies and their implementation process to address the unclear lines of responsibility, lack of coordination in policy implementation, and fragmented ownership of policies,” Soh said.
He also emphasised the importance of a comprehensive rollout and implementation of policies as well as close monitoring of the blueprints’ implementation.
— Bernama
