Malaysia: Search For a Realistic Socioeconomic Strategy

Fifty years of the New Economic Plan haven’t worked

By: Murray Hunter, Lim Teck Ghee, and Ramesh Chander

With the annual budget due for delivery on October 29, Malaysia’s government is expected to reaffirm the New Economic Plan, the 1970s-era affirmative action plan for ethnic Malays that has distorted the economy for five decades, a continuation of both macro-economic management and intervention.

The NEP,…