Development in Malaysia Essay

As Malaysia had experienced an extraordinary economic growth in the last 3 decades is has brought high standards of living for the majority of the people. The people in Kuala Lumpur and major tourist destinations can now enjoy a quality of living which is very similar to developed countries. While Malaysia has done extremely well in some areas there are still challenges that the Government is lacking in delivering healthcare and education to all. In Sarawak and Sabah for example, ethnic minorities are situated in distant areas of Borneo’s rainforest where mountains and rivers are dividing villages from schools and modern services. It is tough for the families who live in these villages as not everyone is able to access the benefits of modernisation. The wealthiest 20% of Malaysians control 53. 8% of the wealth whereas the poorest 20% of the population controls only 4. 5 percent of wealth. Once the country started to modernise, Malaysians living in urban areas has increased from 27% in1970 to 62% in 2000. Forms of poverty started to appear; both urban and rural. After the time of the independence, Malays had migrated to the cities. Arguably, the monthly income is not enough to be able to support a family of four to meet their needs. Roughly quarter of the population could not afford to live in descent accommodations and had to live in squatter settlements as it is more affordable. A poverty reduction programme was introduced, where the poverty line had decreased from 7. 7 % in 1999 to 5. 1% in 2002. This shows a positive reduction. Elderly and disabled people got the opportunity to receive welfare support from the government. In Malaysia, the poverty rate shrank from slightly over half of the population in 1973 to 7. 8 percent in 1995. This means that if poverty reduction continues at the same rate, by 2003, there would be no one left below the poverty line of $2 international dollars a day. This is mainly because the government is trying to increase expenditure on major anti-poverty programs to protect real spending per individual, specially targeting the expenditure for small-scale loans and income generated activities for the poorest in rural areas as well as improvements in welfare programs. Apart of that, the government also spent safety nets for the newly poor through urban micro-credit programs and provision of special skills training for unskilled workers. This progress in poverty reduction measured in income terms is mirrored by improvements in social indicators. Malaysia’s achievements in increasing life expectancy (2003: 70. 6 years for male and 75. 5 years for female) are particularly impressive. Conclusion / Recommendations Monitoring of the gender and development – Since 1988 Malaysia has been experiencing an economic boom. The high growth of the economy was achieved with almost full employment. This strong performance in growth has resulted in basic structural changes in the economy. Ever since the experience of the economic boom, there have been changes in the roles of employment. From the above data, it is evident that there are significant increases in the participation of women in the manufacturing sector and the work force as a whole. Analysis of the of the many positive changes in the improvement of women’s health has lead to a greater amount of children with more access to education across all levels. Now that shortage of labour has increased. It gives a stronger possibility for women who are unpaid to move to paid labour. With the greater amount of job opportunities and demands for both skilled men and women in the manufacturing sector. Moreover with a wider range of availability this strengthens the workforce which helps build a stronger economy providing more employment and attracting foreign investments. As works with the Government and United Nations have been put into place for introducing new projects and programmes that look at decreasing gender inequality. This positive strategy will raise awareness of the situation and allow advancement of women to take place in the future and result in better educated women reflecting into a more economically productive community. One of the most essential factors for the empowerment of women has been education. As today, there are more females than males in the institutions of higher learning education. However, further studies should be put in place to identify problems and solution, for maintaining this industrial growth. They should implement the role of sharing experiences, with one another through bottom-up development and having expertise to keep strengthening the environment and success of the many efforts that have contributed into helping Malaysia The Government should be concerned with financial support. The greater focus on financial support would allow them to invest in equipment, technology and/or research and development. I suppose it is also important to have enough resources provided for the equality of gender and eventually, continuing to regularly update the progress of the gender financing situation which could have a positive effect for Malaysia in the long run. If the government continues to enhance efforts, to further improve the status of women, then this might enable them to reach their full potential as they are likely to have more belief in themselves resulting in more opportunities of them being included in the process of policies and/or programmes. Bibliography http://www. state. gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100527. htm http://www. unicef. org/malaysia/support_6017. htmlhttp://www. unicef. org/malaysia/support_6017. html http://www. unicef. org/malaysia/support_mdgs_malaysia. html http://genderindex. org/country/malaysia http://www. unescap. org/huset/women/reports/malaysia. pdf http://thestar. com. my/news/story. asp? file=/2008/8/2/business/21954384&sec=business – http://www. kuala-lumpur. ws/culture-traditions/ http://www. wao. org. my/news/20010301statusreport. htm#Government.