Globalization of Malaysian economy: with special focus on the role of growth enclaves

Purpose: This paper examines the process of the globalization of Malaysia, a country that has developed over four decades to become one of the top three globalized nations of Asia, after Singapore and Israel. Initially, its enormous primary resources supplied it with a comparative advantage. It pursued an export-oriented economic policy that attracted multinational company (MNC) foreign direct investment (FDI), and modern technology. Subsequently, industrial products from Malaysia made inroads into world markets. \ud \ud Methodology: This was followed by the establishment of growth enclaves throughout the country and the offer of generous incentives to investors, particularly to MNCs. A further source of FDI was the various bilateral and multilateral investment agreements made with major investing countries. Similar agreements on trade and tariffs helped Malaysia to expand in industrial and primary product markets all over the world. All these efforts at industrial and economic development received further impetus from Malaysia's increasing interests in joining regional, continental, and multinational trade, security, and economic blocs and forums. \ud \ud Findings: Malaysia entered into Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with a number of countries, which has further strengthened its trade and investment globalization. Underlying these agreements and partnerships has been a proliferation of economic development and modernization programs, plans, policies, and strategies from all Malaysia's national and state administrative agencies and authorities. With a view to achieving a balanced and sustained national development, it formulated plans for all sectors of the economy that complemented a broad national development plan. \ud \ud Recommendations: The national Vision 2020 is for an all-encompassing development ranging from the social and ethnic to law and order issues, education, science and technology, industrialization, tele-communication, digitalization, and many other known and perceivable dimensions of development and modernization