Malaysia needs to transform into a global exporting player, grow its manufacturing capabilities and create its homegrown multinational companies (MNCs) to break out of the middle-income trap, said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

He said that in the decade before the 1998 Asian financial crisis, Malaysia’s cumulative gross domestic product (GDP) growth stood at 8.4 percent annually, but had fallen to 4.6 percent in the following two decades since then.

“With productivity growth now stagnant, annual per capita income has stalled at about RM40,000 for nearly a decade, suggesting Malaysia is ensnared in the middle-income trap,” he said in his opening remarks...