Malaysia is on the way to becoming a developed nation by 2020 but to reach its goal the government needs to prop up its flagging economic growth rate. One avenue is by ramping up infrastructure spending.
Prime Minister Najib Razak’s said in a budget speech on October 10 that the nation would start work on projects such as highways and railways worth at least M$75 billion $23 billion.
Najib is trying to mitigate the impact on the economy of his efforts to narrow Malaysia’s budget deficit through subsidy cuts and new taxes which have left Malaysian companies and consumers grappling with higher costs. Malaysia’s annual GDP...