1st Edition

Malaysia's Development Challenges Graduating from the Middle

Edited By Hal Hill, Tham Siew Yean, Ragayah Haji Mat Zin Copyright 2012
    376 Pages 29 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    376 Pages 29 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book examines the various economic, political and developmental policy challenges that Malaysia faces in her shift from a middle income to high-income economy. This issue is of great interest to academics, policy makers and development practitioners in the developing world, particularly in middle-income economies where there is a widespread concern about the challenges of managing such a transition.

    Malaysia is one of the developing world's greatest success stories. The book argues that as one of the developing world's most open economies, with a reputation for prudent macroeconomic management, Malaysia has achieved consistent growth since independence. It has moved from a largely resource-based economy to a multinational-led, export-oriented, industrial economy. Despite this success, Malaysia, like other developing countries, is currently at a crossroads in its development strategy; it is in danger of being unable to graduate to the level of more advanced economies - such as Korea, Taiwan and Singapore - but with the basis of its success at risk from competition from efficient, lower-wage countries - such as China, India and Vietnam. Moreover, there are new threats to the political stability and affirmative action programmes which have successfully held together a very racially diverse population.

    List of tables List of figures  List of contributors  Preface  1. Malaysian economic development: looking backward and forward - Hal Hill  2. Political challenges in economic upgrading: Malaysia compared with South Korea and Taiwan - Joan M. Nelson  3. The politics and policies of corporate development: race, rents and redistribution in Malaysia - Edmund Terence Gomez  4. The Malaysian economy during three crises - Prema-chandra Athukorala  5. Monetary policy and financial sector development - Michael Meow-Chung Yap and Kwek Kian Teng  6. Public sector resource management - Suresh Narayanan  7. Microeconomic reform in Malaysia - Cassey Lee  8. Services liberalization: the need for complementary policies - Tham Siew Yean and Loke Wai Heng  9. Is Malaysia’s electronics industry moving up the value chain? - Rajah Rasiah  10. The crisis in education - Lee Kiong Hock and Shyamala Nagaraj  11. Poverty eradication and income distribution - Ragayah Haji Mat Zin  12. Demographic and labour force dynamics - Gavin Jones  13. Shifting the policy goal from environment to sustainable development - A.A. Hezri and S.R. Dovers  References  Index

    Biography

    Hal Hill is the H.W. Arndt Professor of Southeast Asian Economies in the Department of Economics, Australian National University.

    Tham Siew Yean is a Professor and Principal Fellow at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), National University of Malaysia.

    Ragayah Haji Mat Zin is a Professor and Principal Fellow at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), National University of Malaysia.