The Malaysian economy is projected to grow at 6.3 percent during the 2006-2020 period, local authorities said Friday.

The projection is based on the anticipation that the world economy will register a 3.5 percent average growth in gross domestic product (GDP), the Malaysian government said in its Third Industrial Master Plan (2006-2020).

Major growth will come from the manufacturing and services sector as well as the agriculture sector, said the report released through the Ministry of International Trade and Industry here.

The private sector and government-linked companies are expected to take a lead role in generating new investments while the public sector will enhance the delivery system.

For the period 2006-2010, the economy is expected to grow at 6. 0 percent after registering moderate expansion at an average annual rate of 4.6 percent during the Second Industrial Master Plan period (1996-2005), said the report.

"Subsequently, during the period of 2011-2020, the economy is targeted to register an average annual growth of 6.5 percent," it said.

During the 15-year period, the average annual growth of the manufacturing sector, including agro-based industries, is targeted at 5.6 percent and is expected to contribute 28.5 percent to the economy in 2020.

Meanwhile, the non-government services sector is expected to grow at 7.5 percent annually, contributing 59.7 percent to the GDP.

As for agriculture, which the government hopes to transform into a more commercialized and technology-intensive sector, is expected to grow at 5.2 percent annually.

Also for the next 15 years, total trade is targeted to grow almost three-fold from 967.8 billion ringgit (261.56 billion U.S. dollars) in 2005 to 2.8 trillion ringgit (756 billion U.S. dollars) by 2020 with exports expanding 2.7 times from 533.8 billion ringgit (144.27 billion U.S. dollars) to 1.4 trillion ringgit (378 billion U.S. dollars), said the report.

Source: Xinhua