CYBERJAYA, April 4 — Malaysia is on track to hit the economic targets that will make it a developed nation by 2020 but its society is unlikely to achieve the soft goals that are characteristic of such status, according to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The former prime minister said that gross domestic product (GDP) growth and size as well as per capita income were but some measures of a developed nation, adding Malaysia will continue to lack in the intangible areas that are characteristic of advanced countries.
“To be developed, you must not only have the wealth but also the intelligence, the educational status, the industry sophistication of a developed country,
“I’m afraid by 2020, we’re not going to achieve that yet. We are on the way but we will not achieve that yet,” he said at a youth forum today.
The former prime minister said it was not hard for Malaysia to meet the growth targets to achieve developed nation status in five years’ time, but said the country will not be recognised as such until Malaysians as a whole become more intellectual.
He said this could come in the form of Nobel prizes or similar awards being conferred on the Malaysian intelligentsia.
“We will achieve the per capita income, that’s not too difficult. But I’m afraid, to achieve the kind of stature in the world as a developed country, I think there are other factors that have to be thrown in before you consider yourself a developed country,” he said.
Dr Mahathir introduced Vision 2020 during the Sixth Malaysia Plan in 1991, which aims to have Malaysia reach developed nation status in five years’ time.
As part of the government’s transformation plans, Malaysia must sustain an average GDP growth of 6 per cent annually between 2011 and 2020 in order to meet Putrajaya’s imposed timetable to become a high-income and developed nation.
