Abdullah Badawi, the Malaysian prime minister, yesterday unveiled the country's new M$200bn ($54bn, €45bn, £31bn) five-year economic plan, which emphasised education and rural development over infrastructure projects.

The shift in spending priorities underscored Mr Abdullah's attempts to close an income gap between urban and rural areas that had been exploited by the fundamentalist Islamic opposition party to win votes. The plan aims to halve the poverty level to 2.8 per cent of the 26m population.