[costamarianavia]

PETALING JAYA, Malaysia - Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who uses social media platforms to interact with millions of Malaysians, hopes the people will continue to join him in making more progress next year.

"2011 has been a very colourful year for me and I must take this opportunity to thank all Malaysians for your show of support," he said in his post titled "2011 In Review" on his 1Malaysia blog yesterday.

He assured his "online friends" that he had read their comments, ideas, complaints and well wishes and did his best to respond.

In the post, Najib also reviewed some of the significant events that he had documented.

"At the end of the year, it always feels as though the year had gone by too quickly," he wrote. "I'd like to think that it is because it was filled with many positive developments and achievements."

Najib said the Government was able to launch people-centric programmes - such as the 1Malaysia Housing Programme or PR1MA to help middle-income earners own affordable homes - because it listened to the people.

In addressing the pressing issue of inflation and the rising living costs, Najib introduced a Seventh NKRA to the Government Transformation Programme - Tackling Rising Cost of Living - and launched the Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia.

As for the economy, Najib said the programme had seen some results with Malaysia earning a top 20 position in the World Bank's 2011 report.

He also wrote about his first official visit to Britain this year and his attendance at the Invest Malaysia 2011 in New York, which secured Malaysia investments of between RM5bil (S$2bil) and RM6bil over the next two to three years.

Najib highlighted the various ways he had interacted with the people via social media platforms, including responding to some peculiar questions posed on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #Tanyanajib.

"I had many opportunities to engage with the youth this year, most notably the Konsert Suara Kami which I attended after receiving overwhelming retweets and responses online.

"Immediately after, I was invited to do a 'Gotcha' prank on radio by the morning crew of Hitz.fm," he added.

Another milestone in his social media journey, he said, was the introduction of his very own Mobile App for smartphones recently.

He announced that he intended to refresh his website next year and thanked those who participated and provided feedback in the short online survey last October.