Govt aims to expedite high impact projects in revised Budget 2023

As his ministry is in charge of planning the Development Spending, Rafizi said the government hoped to maintain the level of spending that would have a multiplier effect not only for the country but also for the rakyat.

"For the Economy Ministry, which is responsible for development projects called Development Spending, our approach so far is not only to continue all existing projects but we are looking for opportunities to add more projects in important and key sectors," he told reporters at the launch of OpenDOSM NextGen here today.

Rafizi, however, declined to comment on whether the government would maintain or revise the allocation in the revised Budget 2023, as announced previously by the then Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.

Tengku Zafrul tabled a RM372.3 billion budget for 2023, the largest allocation in Malaysia's history, on Oct 7, 2022. Three days later, Parliament was dissolved to make way for the 15th General Election on Nov 19.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who is also the Finance Minister, is scheduled to table the revised Budget 2023 in Parliament on Feb 24.

At the event, chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said OpenDOSM NextGen which was launched today is the continual modernisation and innovation effort of the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) towards the delivery of effective statistical services.

"Apart from easy and fast access to open data, this platform contains data compiled in a data catalogue and presented in the form of a dashboard to make it easier for users to understand the data available in this platform," he said.