JOHOR BARU, Nov 15 — Prudent financial management and equitable distribution of revenue to the people of all levels have enabled Johor to record an excellent budget performance for three years running, said Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

He said a strong and competitive fiscal position contributed to the state’s robust Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.

"Johor was the fourth largest contributor to the nation’s GDP with a cumulative growth for 2014 and 2015 of 8.5 per cent.

"This growth surpassed the national rate of six per cent, with Johor’s GDP expanding by 6.5 per cent for 2014,” he said in a statement in conjunction with the launch of a review on the performance of the Johor budget for the 2014-2016 period.

He said the good performance enabled Johor to post the fourth best annual GDP growth behind Selangor, Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory and Sarawak.

Manufacturing investments in Johor rose to RM31.1 billion in 2015 from RM21.1 billion the previous financial year, he noted.

Mohamed Khaled said investments worth RM5.4 billion were recorded in the first half of this year.

"This encouraging performance was due to the strong economic fundamentals and the state government’s investor-friendly policies, aided by a low unemployment rate of 3.1 per cent and the vibrancy of the economic corridors and the Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex project,” he said.

Besides giving attention to development and physical aspects, the state budget will also focus on matters close to the people’s hearts, such as continuing with an inclusive economic agenda that promotes the people’s wellbeing, he added.

Mohamed Khaled said the state government had outlined 11 main efforts that have been and will be implemented, including reducing the burden of the rising cost of living, provision of affordable housing and infrastructure, entrepreneur development, and improvement of Islamic education facilities.

For the past three years, the state government had also introduced several enablers to ensure long-term development goals are achieved, he said.

These include a key performance index (KPI) for each state committee chairman, improving the operations of Perbadanan Pengangkutan Awam Johor (PAJ), creating the Pengerang Local Authority, and redelineation of four Local Authorities. — Bernama