ABSTRACT
Privatization in Malaysia was officially initiated in 1983. It was made explicit that an excessive government presence in the economy would be reduced, while an increasing role of the private sector would be emphasized. Various factors influenced the Malaysian government’s intent to realign the balance between the public and the private sectors’ responsibilities. The concerted effort to privatize was thus a response to the need to: (a) redefine the public sector’s role in economic development; (b) increase the efficiency and quality of goods and services produced in the
economy; (c) contribute towards meeting the distributional objectives of the New
Economic Policy (NEP). The policy contained guarantees that privatization would be carried out without affecting the interests of consumers, employees of government bodies that were privatized, Bumiputeras, and the nation as a whole.
