ABSTRACT
Malaysia has enjoyed more than three decades of rapid economic development. Since the early 1970s, when the country was still heavily dependent on the export of tin, rubber, timber, and other primary commodities, Malaysia's economy has been rapidly transformed by the growth of export-oriented manufacturing, which emerged as the leading sector of the economy in the early 1980s. Industrial production, featuring mainly electronic, electrical, and textile goods, has propelled Malaysia “from being merely a high-growth economy to becoming one of the world's most outstanding economic performers” (Brookfield 1994a, p. v). Within Southeast Asia, only Singapore has recorded higher rates of growth. Although the economy was adversely affected by the 1997–98 currency crisis, it soon rebounded, and by 2000, it had “reverted to the growth rate of the pre-crisis level” (Malaysia 2001, p. 3). 1
