ABSTRACT
In February 1991, the Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad announced, to the newly formed National Business Council, his 'Vision 2020'. The vision was that Malaysia would become a 'fully developed country' by the year 2020 (Jomo 1994: 51). Five years later, Malaysia was on course to meet this objective. In its 1996 World Development Report, the World Bank defined a high-income (or 'developed') country as one with a per capita GNP in 1994 of US$8956 or more (World Bank 1996: 181). In that year, Malaysia's per capita GNP was US$3480, less than half the high-income cut-off point. However, over the 1985-94 period, Malaysia's per capita GNP had grown at 5.6 per cent per annum whereas the annual growth rates of the world average and the high-income average had been 0.9 per cent and 1.9 per cent respectively (World Bank 1996: 189). If we assume that the developed-country cut-off income grows at just under 2 per cent per annum over the next quarter-century, by the year 2020 it will be about US$15,000 (in 1995 prices). To reach this level, Malaysia's average has to grow at a little under 6 per cent per annum - that is, it has to continue to grow over the next quarter of a century at about the same rate that it has achieved over the past decade.
