Malaysia's Development Challenges: Graduating from the Middle

Malaysia is one of the developing world's greatest success stories. As one of the developing world's most open economies, with a well-deserved reputation for prudent macroeconomic management, Malaysia has achieved since independence in 1957 consistent growth, transforming itself from the 1970s onwards from a largely resource-based economy to a multinational-led, export-oriented, industrial economy. Despite this success, Malaysia is currently at a crossroads in its development strategy. Like some other developning countries, Malaysia is in danger of getting stuck in the middle, 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, and with new threats to the political stability and affirmative action programmes which have successfully held together a very racially diverse population. This book identifies and discusses the key aspects of Malaysia's current development policy challenges. Subjects covered include technology, education and skills, the promotion of entrpreneurship, social issues, monetary policy and governance issues, with the discussion of each subject empirically rich, rooted in Malaysia's development experience, and forward looking.