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.

Since 1957, Malaysia’s economic development has been an account of growth, transformation, and of structural change. More than 75 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) comes from the manufacturing and services sectors. However, Malaysia is stuck in a middle-income trap and is facing challenges on the economic and political front. In June 2010, Prime Minister Najib Razak unveiled the 10th Malaysian Plan (2011-15) to chart the development of Malaysia from a middle- to high-income nation. This publication represents a policy-oriented stocktake and evaluation by academics, policy-makers, and business people on Malaysia’s achievements, present work-in-progress endeavours, and some of the future challenges facing the nation in its pursuit to achieve a developed high-income country status.

Malaysia is one of the most intriguing countries in Asia in many respects. It consists of several distinct areas, not only geographically but ethnically as well; along with Malays and related groups, the country has a very large Indian and Chinese population. The spoken languages obviously vary at home, although Bahasa Malaysia is the official language and nearly everyone speaks English. There is also a mixture of religions, with Islam predominating among the Malays and others, Hinduism and Sikhism among the Indians, mainly Daoism and Confucianism among the Chinese, but also some Christians as well as older indigenous beliefs in certain places. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Malaysia contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Malaysia.