KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 — Question marks remain over Malaysia’s ambitions to be a developed nation by 2020 owing to its mixed progress in the deep-cutting reforms needed to reach this goal, said the World Bank.

Three years after Putrajaya embarked on its path of “transformations”, the global financial institution noted in a recent report that the bulk of these reforms continue to be undelivered or short of their targets.

“Given that one-third of the time has passed between the launch of these programs and their ‘deadlines’ in 2020, questions arise regarding their progress,” it said in its “Malaysia Economic Monitor” report.

The World Bank listed the implementation of a minimum wage, the announcement of the long-delayed Goods and Services Tax, and the Competition Act 2010 as among the notable achievements in the country’s efforts to reform.

But it also highlighted instances where Putrajaya has backed down when faced with resistance.

“Other measures, however, have achieved less notable progress, an example being planned reforms in the public sector.

“Although the new civil service remuneration scheme (SBPA) had been cancelled in 2012, no substitute scheme has been announced aimed at the critical but difficult task of modernizing the civil service.”

The SBPA was intended to replace the existing Malaysian Remuneration Scheme (SSM) but was rejected by Cuepacs, the civil servants union, and eventually scrapped after a review.

Malaysia employs some 1.4 million people for its civil service despite its population of just 28 million ― one of the highest public-worker-to-citizen ratios in the world.

Malaysia’s civil service costs the nation around RM60 billion in wages annually. It the single largest Budget item and accounts for a third of total spending.

But their numbers also make civil servants a substantial vote bank for the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN), one which it is wary of alienating with reforms.

“It should also be noted that although the New Economic Model highlighted that the transformation of the Public Service Commission would be essential to efforts in reforming Malaysia’s public service, there is limited information on plans for such reforms,” the World Bank continued in its report.

In 2010, Putrajaya laid out a series of wide-reaching reforms that would overhaul the government and the economy in order to allow Malaysia to reach the stated goal of becoming a developed, high-income nation by 2020.

Under the initiatives, the government had proposed to do away with race-based affirmative action such as those contained in the technically-defunct-but-still-enforced New Economic Policy (NEP) in favour of meritocracy.

But vociferous resistance from Bumiputera groups ahead of the country’s 13^th general election had forced the BN government to soften its stance on this and other reforms, before eventually reinforcing some of the policies that it had set out to overhaul.

One example the World Bank noted was the Bumiputera Economic Enhancement Plan announced in 2013 that sought to channel some RM30 billion in contracts and aid towards the country’s dominant community.

“While the effectiveness of these measures in reducing economic disparity depends on the details of their implementation, in principle they seem to be an extension of the NEP, and may negate some of the principles of the New Economic Model,” it said.

Putrajaya’s lack of appetite for reforms was also cited as a reason by Fitch Ratings when it unexpectedly slashed Malaysia’s sovereign debt outlook in July.