Malaysia plans to introduce a second edition of strategies in the next few months to ensure growth of both the upstream and downstream sectors of the domestic natural rubber industry, local news reports said Monday.

Under the country's Economic Transformation Programme, the government has initiated two Entry Point Projects, or EPPs, which are aimed at increasing the average national rubber productivity to 2,000 kg/hectare annually by 2020 (EPP 1) and ensuring the sustainability of the upstream rubber industry (EPP 2), Salmiah Ahmad, director-general of the Malaysian Rubber Board, said.

The Economic Transformation Programme, or ETP, is an initiative that was launched in 2010 by Malaysia to transform the country into a high income economy by 2020. Under the ETP, the rubber industry is expected to contribute MR52.9 billion (16.9 billion) to gross national income by 2020.

The two EPPs were also meant to deal with low productivity and supply of natural rubber in Malaysia, the world's third largest producer of the commodity.

Malaysia's average yield per hectare stands at about 1,500 kg, she said. Despite steps to improve productivity and production, Ahmad said local production had fallen by 8-9% in 2012 amid unfavourable weather conditions.

Malaysia produced about 922,798 mt of natural rubber in 2012, down 7.4% year on year, according to data from the country's statistics department.