UNICEF Malaysia Working Paper Series Malaysia 2050: Economically Productive and Socially Inclusive Overcoming the Challenge of Demographic Pressure (original) (raw)
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The report entitled “Malaysia – The Millennium Development Goals at 2010” con fi rmed that Malaysia had achieved most of its MDGs ahead of time while showing progress in moving towards some of the goals and targets that it has yet to achieve. This report, prepared by the UNDP in Malaysia in close cooperation with the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister’s Department, reaf fi rms the 2005 fi ndings that Malaysia’s achievements were indeed impressive in aggregate terms. Nonetheless, fi ndings in this report also acknowledged that Malaysia still lagged behind in areas such as maternal mortality, women in managerial positions and female political representation, HIV/AIDS and the persistence of tuberculosis at a relatively high level.
Human Development Scenario of Malaysia: ASEAN and Global Perspective
Human development is one of the core considerations of a country’s level of development. This study focuses on the performance of development indicators highlighting Malaysian scenario among the ASEAN and some other countries of the world. Malaysia has achieved the 61st place in the world according to the performance of human development. In the Human Development Report (HDR) 2011, countries are divided into very high human development, high human development, medium human development and low human development. Malaysia has perceived a good position among the group of high human development countries and ASEAN countries. It has occupied third position among ASEAN countries according to GNI per capita and HDI rank. Income Gini-coefficient of Malaysia is comparatively higher meaning that larger income inequality prevailing in Malaysian nations but it can be noted that very few people of Malaysia live below poverty line just 3.8 percent. Malaysia’s position is quite good in term of ecological footprint, environmental performance index, renewable energy, fossil fuels, etc but still far behind from the very high human development countries. Moreover it has possessed the worst position among the ASEAN because of producing highest emission of carbon dioxide and green house gas. So it is really alarming that though Malaysia is one of the influential countries in the ASEAN but it has failed to achieve best position among the South East Asian countries. Moreover, in many case Malaysia’s position is still far away from the performance of different indicators of the developed countries of the world though Malaysia is committed to be a developed nation by 2020. So for transforming Malaysia as a developed nation it need to concentrate to accelerate a very good performance of human development indicators.
Malaysia: 30 years of poverty reduction, growth and racial harmony
Shanghai Poverty ConferenceScaling up Poverty …, 2004
The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work.
MALAYSIA TOWARDS ZERO POVERTY BY 2020
Since 1970, Malaysia have been adopted various policies to reduce poverty and address the socio-spatial inequality. These policies managed to reduce poverty rate from 52.4% in 1970 to 1.7 % in 2012. However, inequalities and disparity among regions and ethnic groups have not been properly addressed. Policies that worked well nationally might not be suitable to be used in addressing poverty at local level. Thus, this paper aims to critically look at the strengths and weaknesses of such policies particularly in eliminating poverty. The paper is based heavily on the review of the recent literature and the data gathered from Economic Planning Unit-EPU and the Department of Statistics, Malaysia. Empirical experiences have shown that Malaysia has managed to reduce poverty beyond the declaration of MDG; halving poverty by 2015. However several issues need to be addressed as the country aim to be a developed nation with zero poverty as indicated in its vision 2020. Although the slogan "growth with equity" was used, spatial disparities were found among region such as between Sabah and Penang. Penang State, which has experienced steady economic growth, has implemented top-up model of eliminating poverty where families earned less than poverty income line received top-up income from the state government since 2013, claimed to have zero poverty rate. However, the sustainability of this approach is questionable. In addition to that, the sign of incidence of poverty between rural and urban and among ethnic minorities is quite clear. This inequality with external factors (illegal migration and global economy) poses some challenges for achieving the vision 2020. By evaluating the policies and analyzing regional disparities the paper will enrich the literature on poverty and help the planners to formulate sound poverty eradication polices
Like other countries in East and Southeast Asia, Malaysia has undergone a rapid demographic transition to low fertility. This has meant a growing share of the economically active population that will eventually peak as ageing becomes more pronounced. The potential increase in the labor force has been undermined by both rising enrollment in upper secondary and tertiary education, as well as by many females remaining outside the labor force. Together with high economic growth, this has created a shortage of labor. Immigrant labor, both legal and illegal, has stepped in to fill the gap but entrenched a low labor cost model. Breaking out of this requires strengthening the country's human capital base. While generous government expenditure and liberalization of the education sector has resulted in significant gains in numbers enrolled, several factors have had a negative effect on education quality. Unless reversed, this deterioration has long-term implications for the country's development.
Objective-The rapid growth in the ageing population necessitates a more intensified effort to include patients of all ages in global sustainable development. While many countries struggle to manage their ageing populations, efforts to ensure adequate health are alarmingly unconvincing. In fact, the spread of infectious diseases, especially Tuberculosis (TB), within the ageing population remains a threat to meet the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Studies related to the ageing population in Malaysia are rather limited and their perspectives on infectious disease patients are often neglected. Methodology/Technique-Therefore, this study aims to investigate the perspective of ageing tuberculosis patients on preventive measures and to what extent their behaviour helps Malaysia to comply with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Of 1,600 patients to whom questionnaires were sent, 1,368 completed questionnaires that were used for further analysis. This study was conducted in 2015 within selected states of Malaysia with high occurrence rates of TB cases. Finding-This paper confirmed that TB patients in this study possessed high TB knowledge especially among male and married patients with low household income. Also, the findings revealed that most TB patients understood that smoking increases the risk of TB infection, yet, they did not quit smoking which explains that majority of them have been diagnosed with TB for more than five years. Despite the patients possessed high TB knowledge, results on their attitude towards family, friends, and neighbours indicated that the patients did not distance themselves from others which might cause infections. In fact, in terms of TB practices; most patients still reluctant to wear facial mask in public. Novelty-Hence, the strategies to end the TB epidemic in Malaysia by 2035 should be improved so that the quality of life for the ageing population can be assured.
The Developing World and Development Issues: Interrogating the Development Trajectory of Malaysia
WILBERFORCE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
The development strides’ taken by the state and leadership of Malaysia over the last four decades are worth commending. Her high growth rate is consistent with high GDP, high GNI per Capita, low poverty indices, improvement in the quality of life, income distribution, promotion of growth and equity, racial harmony, religious tolerance and political stability. Malaysia, under the current leadership of Prime Minister Najid Razak, has colonial realities that correspond with those of other colonized countries of the developing world and also inherited the colonial legacies enumerated in the development literature. Being in the same predicaments with her sister countries in the global south, Malaysia was also faced with the option of following the development routes suggested by the Bretton Woods Institutions or those of dependency scholars. However, Malaysia attempted a now successful path unique to her realities with a mixture of the values of prior development theories where necessary...