Is Malaysia's electronics industry moving up the value chain?

For over half the twentieth century Malaysian rubber and tin dominated world production and exports, but in the latter part of the century electronics overtook natural resources to occupy an increasingly dominant share of the country’s exports. In 2006 the electronics industry still accounted for 42.2 per cent of Malaysia’s manufactured exports and 4.7 per cent of world electronics exports (Rasiah 2010: Table 1), down from 53.3 per cent and 5.4 per cent respectively in 2000. It will be useful to examine the nature and causes of the decline in the relative significance of an industry that has generated a significant share of manufacturing investment, employment and exports in Malaysia since 1972.