Economic Malaysia

The economy of Malaysia has expanded a lot in 2004, as in the following years, with a growth of 7.1 percent. At that time, GNI was at $ 117.1 billion and the GNI per capita at $ 4650. Malaysia’s economy continues to grow. In terms of purchasing power parity, the country was the twenty-ninth largest economy on the globe, having gross domestic product at $357.9 billion in 2007. Due to its continuous development in the industrial sector, Malaysia has one of the biggest living standards in Southeast Asia.
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Malaysia has rich natural resources: palm oil, timber, tin, crude petroleum and rubber. Agriculture accounts for 12 per cent of the country’s GDP. 16 per cent of the working population is employed in the domain of agriculture. The most important crops are palm oil, cocoa and rubber, but also fruits and vegetables: coconuts, pineapples, rambutan, bananas and durian.

The country cannot satisfy the population’s everyday need for rice, so Malaysia is forced to import it from the neighboring countries such as Vietnam or Thailand. Malaysia is the biggest producer of palm oil in the world; it produced 10 million metric tons of palm oil in 1999, most of which was exported. Malaysia is also a big exporter of rubber and wood: tropical logs, sawed tropical timber, hardwood.

The manufacturing sector provides: furniture, office machines, electrical machines and appliances, clothing, footwear. International trade has a big role in the country’s economy, as it is one of the three countries controlling the Strait of Malacca. 48% of the country’s GDP is covered by the industrial sector: banking, telecommunications, tobacco, transportation, utilities. Bank Negara Malaysia regulates the financial sector in Malaysia. It licenses limits for foreign participation. In 2001, the central