Malaysia's Development Challenges

<p>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. </p><p>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. </p>