NAJIB: Cut down on time of delivery

PUTRAJAYA: In announcing the Government Agenda for 2010, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak called on the civil service to weigh in the speed of delivery to ensure success of the various government programmes.

“Speed of delivery must be given greater emphasis to actualise the 'People First' concept,” he said at his monthly meeting with his department staff at Dataran Putra here this morning.

Najib said the 'Rakyat Didahulukan' or 'People First' concept is not mere sloganeering but to deliver the promises made to the people.

“We must cut down our time of delivery. We have achieved this in many areas such as passport application and renewal, for example.”

He noted that if the private sector could improve its speed of service to the public, there was no reason why the government cannot do so.

“Passport renewal took many days before but now we have managed to cut down the delivery time to only one hour.”

In unveiling the four elements of the Government Agenda 2010, Najib said speed must also be reflected in making decisions as well as execution.

Factoring speed in the Government Agenda for 2010 will ensure more competitiveness and productivity, he added.

The four elements, he said, were National Unity, Government Transformation Programme, the New Economic Model and the 10th Malaysia Plan. These pillars are the cornerstone of the Government Agenda 2010 to bring about change.

Touching on National Unity, the prime minister said in the journey towards this ultimate realisation, there were bound to be many hitches.

“We must ensure that actions detrimental to national unity must be stopped, because if these things are left to continue it will affect our realisation of the 1Malaysia concept,” he said, further citing the throwing of wild boar heads in a mosque recently.

On the New Economic Model, Najib said it will be the stimulus to the present economic system for more competitiveness and a backup to any eventuality in the future.

"We don't want to be caught unprepared."

He said the new model will place greater emphasis on the rakyat and reflect the emphasis the government is placing on people rather than big businesses. To cut down on government expenditure, he called on the civil service to think and innovate when carrying out their duties.

"By incorporating these two factors, there will be value creation in our economic development,” he said, calling on his staff to give their fullest cooperation and commitment to ensure the Government Agenda for 2010 is realised fully.

Also present at the briefing were Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department  Senator Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon, deputy ministers Datuk S.K. Devamani and Datuk T. Murugiah.