Aligning Malaysia’s New Economic Model with Knowledge Transfer Program

The New Economic Model (NEM) launched in 2010 aims to improve the Malaysian's quality of life through the inter linkages of three elements: sustainability, inclusiveness and high income. The productivity, creativity and innovation among Malaysians are the priorities, which aims to help increase revenues. NEM and national agenda could be materialized through advanced knowledge transfer involving three major stakeholders: academia, graduate and postgraduate interns, industry and community. Knowledge Transfer Program (KTP) is not a standalone agenda but a program that entails five focuses in Key Result Areas (KRAs) (education, economy, sustainability and green technology initiatives, the disadvantaged groups and developing industry relevant curriculum). As such, the objectives of this paper are (i) to identify the NEM elements with completed KTP projects in the five rolling plans (ii) to evaluate the outcome of the projects in line with NEM objectives and (iii) to propose indicators as a way to fulfill the quality of life benchmark of each KTP KRAs. The outcome of these KRAs complements NEM objectives and that KTP is the anchor of such achievements.