Even though Vision 2020 is synonymous with former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has no wish to create a catchphrase of his own.

The soft spoken prime minister said there is no need to create a new vision, just for the sake of promoting himself.

"We have been working in various ways for the last 15 years towards attaining the objective. There is only the other half of the way to go. Therefore, there is no reason for me, at the highway point, to introduce a new vision just for the sake of using my name," he said.

The premier said this during an interview on the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP), launched by Abdullah last Friday, over Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) last night.

New approach

Quelling naysayers, Abdullah assures that the government has enough funds to finance the RM200 billion plan, while reiterating that funding will also be sourced from the private sector.

Unlike previous plans, Abdullah explains that the 9MP was drawn up 'in totality', rather than having it divided into chapters.

"For this (ninth plan), we have not divided it into such chapters. With such chapters, it will only be like the usual plans ... one chapter ... one chapter ... one chapter. A person can go straight to the chapter on the economy, for example, without looking at the other chapters. He will not look at the other sectors," he said, according to Bernama.

By the end of it all, the government would evaluate the implementation of 9MP in order to plan for improvements to the 10th and 11th plans - the final two phases before 2020, the year Malaysia aspires to be a developed nation.