Malaysia Wants Your Ideas on How to Draft Its 2020 State Budget

(Bloomberg) -- In the run-up to Malaysia’s budget on Oct. 11, the government is seeking ideas from its citizens as it looks to boost economic growth while narrowing the fiscal deficit.

The finance ministry has set up forms on its website where anyone can submit suggestions geared toward 14 goals, from improving access to housing to sustainable development. The government also wants suggestions on how to improve public services, ensure social justice and promote a healthy lifestyle in the country known for having the highest obesity rate in Southeast Asia.

This isn’t the first time that Malaysia has turned to the power of the masses in its fiscal policy. Soon after taking power last year, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng opened the Tabung Harapan fund to collect 203.3 million ringgit ($49 million) of public donations to help repay 1MDB debt. He has also threatened banks that they may be made irrelevant by property crowdfunding services if they refuse to give out home loans.

The government expects to reduce the budget deficit to 3% of gross domestic product in 2020, from the 3.4% target for this year, while funding a plan to safeguard Malaysia from the impact of the U.S.-China trade war. It is also seeking new sources of revenue after replacing the sweeping goods-and-services tax with a more targeted system last year.

Malaysians can also include the hashtag #Belanjawan2020 in social media including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to get noticed by the finance ministry, which will compile the input from Aug. 9 through Sept. 11.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yudith Ho in Kuala Lumpur at yho35@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stephanie Phang at sphang@bloomberg.net, Chan Tien Hin, Anuradha Raghu

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