The Ministry of Economy and the Malaysia Plans

Every time the Prime Minister stands in the Dewan Rakyat to table the nation’s five-year development plan, the thick document in his hands does not simply appear out of nowhere. It is prepared over years by a ministry that most people rarely notice — the Ministry of Economy. And the ministry itself is new in its current form, even though the work it does began well before full independence.

At a glance

Name	Ministry of Economy (Kementerian Ekonomi)
Type	Federal ministry
Established	After the 15th General Election; took over the EPU’s functions on 23 December 2022
Functional heir to	Economic Planning Unit (EPU)
Flagship output	Malaysia Plan (five-year development plan)
Main department	Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM)
Website	ekonomi.gov.my

What the Ministry of Economy actually does

The Ministry of Economy is not the ministry that spends the government’s daily money, nor is it the one that collects taxes. Its job is to plan — setting the direction of the nation’s development for the years ahead, then deciding how much of the development resources are allocated and where.

Based on the ministry’s own functions page, its tasks fall into four clusters:

• Socioeconomic development planning — drawing up medium- and long-term socioeconomic development plans at the national, regional and state levels; conducting research and advising the government on economic matters; strengthening inclusive development including the Bumiputera agenda; and formulating energy policy related to oil and gas.
• Allocation of resources — determining the ceilings and allocation of development expenditure, and carrying out value management for development projects exceeding RM50 million.
• Implementation, coordination and monitoring — tracking the progress of national development programmes and initiatives and implementing the ministry’s own programmes.
• Stakeholder facilitation — acting as the national secretariat for socioeconomic planning bodies, including the National Economic Action Council and the National Development Planning Committee.

The most useful way to understand the division: the Ministry of Economy plans and allocates development, while the Federal Budget tabled by the Ministry of Finance translates part of that plan into actual ringgit each year.

From EPU to the Ministry of Economy

This institution has changed form many times, but its core mandate — preparing the nation’s development plans — has remained unchanged through every restructuring.

The story begins with the Economic Secretariat established on 24 April 1956 to support the Economic Committee of the Federal Executive Council. In 1961, it was reorganised into the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) under the Prime Minister’s Department. By 1970, the EPU began operating under a Director-General structure, with Tan Sri Dato’ Thong Yaw Hong as its first Director-General.

Then came a wave of politically driven restructurings:

Date	Change
2018	After GE-14, the EPU was reorganised into the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MEA)
18 December 2019	The EPU was officially dissolved; its roles and functions were taken over by the MEA
10 March 2020	The EPU was re-established under the Prime Minister’s Department
23 December 2022	After GE-15, the EPU was dissolved again; its responsibilities were transferred to the newly established Ministry of Economy

This means that when you come across an old reference to “EPU” or “Economic Planning Unit” in policy documents, it refers to functions that now sit within the Ministry of Economy. The ministerial post has also changed hands: following Rafizi Ramli’s resignation effective 17 June 2025, Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir was appointed Minister of Economy on 16 December 2025 — the post rotates, but the ministry and its mandate remain the same.

The Malaysia Plan: the ministry’s flagship output

The Ministry of Economy’s most well-known output is the Malaysia Plan (RMK) — the nation’s five-year medium-term development plan. It is this ministry that coordinates its preparation, proposing macroeconomic targets and issuing planning guidelines to all ministries and agencies, through a top-down and bottom-up approach.

Before it reaches Parliament, the draft passes through a chain of endorsement: the National Development Planning Committee (JPPN) chaired by the Chief Secretary to the Government, then the Prime Minister’s Special Committee, then the Cabinet, and finally tabled in Parliament as a motion for debate and approval — not as a bill.

This tradition began earlier than the name “Malaysia Plan” itself. The First Malaysia Plan covered 1966-1970, and the cycle has continued unbroken since:

Plan	Period
First to Fifth Malaysia Plan	1966-1990
Sixth to Tenth Malaysia Plan	1991-2015
Eleventh Malaysia Plan	2016-2020
Twelfth Malaysia Plan (RMKe-12)	2021-2025
Thirteenth Malaysia Plan (RMK13)	2026-2030

RMKe-12 (2021-2025) was themed “A Prosperous, Inclusive, Sustainable Malaysia”, focusing on the private sector as the engine of development, inclusive development to tackle poverty and income gaps, green development towards a low-carbon nation, and a specific focus on basic infrastructure and services in Sabah and Sarawak. The current edition, RMK13 (2026-2030), is themed “Redesigning Development”. Full details of each plan — its thrusts, targets and investment figures — are set out in the Malaysia Plans article.

Agencies under the Ministry of Economy

Beyond preparing the Malaysia Plan, the Ministry of Economy oversees several departments and agencies that carry out statistical work, regional development and Bumiputera mandates:

• Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) — its main department, which produces official economic, social, demographic and environmental statistics. See DOSM — Department of Statistics Malaysia.
• Regional corridor authorities — the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA), the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA), the East Coast Economic Region Development Council (ECERDC), the Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority (SEDIA) and the Regional Corridor Development Authority of Sarawak (RECODA).
• Bumiputera mandate agencies — the Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit (TERAJU), Yayasan Peneraju and Ekuiti Nasional Berhad (EKUINAS).
• Oil and gas — the Malaysia Petroleum Resources Corporation (MPRC) and the Johor Petroleum Development Corporation (JPDC).

The Ministry of Economy’s official agencies page lists a specific number of agencies as of the review date. Confirm the exact current arrangement at ekonomi.gov.my before relying on it for formal purposes, as the ministry’s agency structure may change after a Cabinet restructuring.

Ministry of Economy vs Ministry of Finance

These two ministries are often confused because both deal with the nation’s “money” — but their divisions of labour differ:

	Ministry of Economy	Ministry of Finance
Focus	Planning medium- and long-term development	Managing annual revenue, taxes and expenditure
Main instrument	Malaysia Plan (5 years)	Federal Budget (annual)
Sets	Ceilings and allocation of development expenditure	Actual ringgit allocations each year
Approved as	Policy motion in Parliament	Supply Bill (Supply Act)

In short: the Ministry of Economy sets the five-year framework, and the Ministry of Finance fills it in year by year.

What’s next

To understand the details of the Malaysia Plan itself — the thrusts, outcome targets and investment figures of each edition — see Malaysia Plans. To see how the five-year framework is translated into actual allocations each year, see the Federal Budget Cycle. And for the official statistics that underpin every planning target, see DOSM — Department of Statistics Malaysia.

The Ministry of Economy’s official portal at ekonomi.gov.my lists the full functions, the current list of agencies and the documents for each Malaysia Plan for further reference.