Country Profile
From The Report: Malaysia 2014
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Malaysia consists of 13 states across a total land area of 330,000 sq km; its capital, Kuala Lumpur, is located approximately 300 km from Singapore. According to the Department of Statistics, Malaysia’s population reached 29.95m in 2013, with an average growth rate of 1.45% between 2012 and 2013. “Malaysia Truly Asia,” the country’s tourism slogan reflects who Malaysians are: an amalgamation of ethnicities, religions, cultures and languages. While the government aims for Malaysia to reach developed nation status by 2020, the key to reaching this goal lies in its handling of political and social challenges. Keeping the country’s different ethnicities and faith communities together in a workable social contract and balancing the impact of changing times with the need for continuity and respect for tradition will ensure impressive results. This chapter contains a country profile viewpoint from Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

A safe choice: Abundant natural resources and strong human development scores help the growth story continue
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As well as being home to rolling hills, lush forests and a rich tropical coastline, Malaysia is blessed with plentiful hydrocarbons reserves and a well-educated, multilingual population. Such credentials continue to keep the country in good stead, with priorities centred on preparing it for the inception of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 and steering the policy framework toward more inclusive political representation. Population According to the country’s Department of Statistics (DoS),…

Viewpoint

A new foundation: Prime Minister Najib Razak on realising ASEAN’s potential
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The eyes of the region and the world will be on Malaysia in 2015, a historic date which will see the establishment of the ASEAN Community. It is the culmination of a five-decade-long effort of region-building. The foreign ministers who signed the Bangkok Declaration in 1967, my father included, could scarcely have imagined the heights to which ASEAN would rise. Our region was associated with concepts such as “Balkanisation” and “domino theory”, and few would have predicted that South-east…

Overview

Moving forward: Political maturity will be key to meeting future policy challenges
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As Malaysia heads towards six decades of independence from Britain, its economy has never been stronger, with per capita income at an all-time high of $10,548, according to the IMF. Likewise, GDP rose to RM984.45bn ($307.25bn) in 2013, as per data from the Department of Statistics. In many ways, Malaysia has benefitted from its diverse ethnic and religious composition, as well as its geo-strategic location, spread across two parts of the South China Sea and a coastline on the Indian Ocean, too. The…

Analysis

A steady head: Malaysia prepares to lead the transition to a single economic market
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The year 2015 is a landmark one for both Malaysia and ASEAN, as the 10-member grouping moves to establish the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) under Kuala Lumpur’s (KL) chairmanship. Malaysia’s government has been gearing up for this challenge for some time too, signalling the approach it may take via a series of policy speeches. In these, Prime Minister Najib Razak and other officials have outlined a people-centred approach, specifically from an economic, political and security, and socio-cultural…