A Royal Command has been issued by His Majesty the King to endorse the government’s 20-year National Strategy effective as of its publication in the Royal Gazette.
The National Strategy for 2018-2037 comprises six strategies: national security; competiveness enhancement; human resources development and empowerment; broadening opportunity and social equality, environmental-friendly development and growth and reforming and improving government administration.
The National Strategy was formally incorporated in the 2017 Constitution in Section 65 which states, in essence, that the state should set out a national strategy as a goal for sustainable development of the country under the principle of good governance to be used as a framework for formulating consistent and integrated plans in a congruous force to achieve such goal.
The goals of the 20-year strategy are: 5-6 percent economic growth; per capital income of US$15,000; healthy people of all ages with lifelong learning; increased forest cover up to 40 percent of land mass; and No 2 ranking in Asean in Corruption Perception Index.
It was drafted by a committee appointed by the cabinet resolution on June 2015.
With the National Strategy coming into force, the next elected governments will be obliged to declare their policies and propose their annual budget based on the National Strategy.
Large sectors of politicians and academics have strongly criticized the national strategy which they describe as a political straightjacket.
