China’s Impact On Malaysia

I’ll be going on leave for a short break during these school holidays, so there won’t be any further posts until the middle of next week. In the meantime, I’m making a note on a briefing held yesterday by the World Bank on China’s long term prospects and the consequences for Malaysia.

Since it was a closed door session and the their report on China was the subject of some controversy, we’re not supposed to talk about the China portion of the presentation. Suffice to say that the report and its recommendations are freely available through the World Bank’s website (link here). My only comment on this is to repeat what we were told – in detail, the report broadly mirrors the proposals of our own New Economic Model.

Opportunity Knocking

From a forthcoming paper, Malaysia is ranked in terms of its opportunities and capabilities for future growth:

Development and accumulation of new capabilities: The Index of Opportunities

This column introduces the Index of Opportunities – a ranking of countries by their capacity to undergo structural transformation and develop. It suggests countries at the bottom are in urgent need of implementing policies that lead to higher diversification and sophistication of exports.