Transformation with Industrialization in Peninsular Malaysia (South-east Asian Social Science Monographs) - Hardcover

From colonial times until the late 1970s the driving force of the Peninsular Malaysia economy was the production and export of primary products--first tin, than rubber and timber, and finally petroleum. In the 1980s export-oriented industrial production took over as the leading sector economy, enabling Malaysia to become a world-class economic performer. This volume shows how a small country with a modest resource endowment used a strong political will to achieve a remarkable transformation. In the process, the contributors detail how the lives of ordinary people have been transformed in the light of Malaysia's economic success.

From colonial times until the end of the 1970s the main driving force of the Peninsular Malaysia economy was the export production of primary products - first tin, then also rubber, and later, palm oil and timber, and finally petroleum. It was only in the 1980s that export-oriented industrial production took over as the leading sector, enabling Malaysia to become one of the world's most outstanding economic performers. The contributors to this volume seek to show not only how a small country with quite modest resource endowment has used a strong political will to mobilize these resources, their product and its own people, infused with foreign investment and new ideas, to achieve a most remarkable transformation, but also to show how the lives of ordinary people have been transformed in the process. Harold Brookfield is Emeritus Professor at the Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University.