He said if the government subsidy rationalisation policy succeeded, the savings could be diverted into social assistance, potentially boosting poverty reduction and generating fiscal savings.

“I know people have been asking about when we are going to introduce the mechanism, but prioritising its harmonisation and preparation is necessary for something as big as this,” he said during the launch of the World Bank’s 29th Malaysia Economic Monitor, titled “Bending Bamboo Shoots: Strengthening Foundation Skills”.

He said 11.6 million (52.6%) eligible citizens have registered on the centralised database hub or Padu.

“This gives us the sufficient bandwidth to finally implement subsidy rationalisation and transition away from the regressive model of blanket subsidies.

“With this level of necessary, granular data, we can minimise both exclusion and inclusion errors, and ensure an equitable distribution of subsidies to those that need them most,” he said.

Meanwhile, the World Bank’s Malaysia Economic Monitor report highlighted Malaysia’s long-term growth prospects, which depend on bolstering its human capital by improving learning outcomes for children.

The report made the following recommendations to improve learning outcomes: ensuring that all children benefit from high-quality preschool education, arriving at primary school ready to learn, and improving access to early childhood education and its quality for lower-income households.

“Malaysia must also rigorously measure students’ learning outcomes and benchmark them against international standards, while also measuring teachers’ performance thoroughly.

“(It is also important) to provide effective teacher training programmes, as well as policies that consider teachers’ experiences and needs, thus ensuring effectiveness and sustainability,” it said.