Malaysia plans to develop a nuclear energy industry, build a mass rail network and create a shopping district to rival Singapore’s Orchard Road as part of efforts to boost investment and spur growth.

These are among US$444 billion ($592 billion) worth of potential private- sector-led projects by companies including Dialog Group Bhd. and IOI Corp. that may turn around an investment slump and help the country achieve developed nation status by 2020, according to Idris Jala, chief executive officer of the government’s Performance Management and Delivery Unit, or Pemandu.

 

“We can do this,” Jala, who is also a minister in the Prime Minister’s department, said in an embargoed briefing on Sept. 15. “Look at what’s happened in South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. The growth in those countries is phenomenal in the last 10 years.”

 

Foreign investment in Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy has fallen over the past three years amid growing competition from neighbors including India and China, tumbling 81 percent last year. The government aims to boost gross national income from US$188 billion to close to US$523 billion in 2020 and raise per capita income to at least US$15,000, meeting the World Bank’s definition of a high-income nation, Jala said.

 

Malaysia’s benchmark stock index has risen 0.4% since Sept. 17, when parts of the government’s investment plans were released.