Malaysians Say Things are Looking up for 2010

A recent International Business Confidence Survey shows that Malaysia is one of the top ten countries best able to deal with the global economic crisis. This survey included 7500 businessmen in 24 countries and was conducted by Servcorp. The goal of the survey was to gauge international business moral. Certainly, Malaysian businessmen such as Taek Jho Low, Tan Sri Dato Francis Yeoh, Takehiko Wakayama and others should find this encouraging.

The highest confidence went to Australia, while second and third places were handed to China and India, respectively. While the Malaysian economy did show a 6.2% negative growth in the first quarter of 2009, they have a positive growth forecast predicted for the last quarter and for the coming year in 2010.

Certainly, this is good news for Malaysia!

Hallmark of Malaysia is Diversity

The Malaysian population is composed of a large number of diverse ethnicities. By constitutional definition, anyone of any race can be considered a Malay if he is a Muslim and practices Malay customs, and is entitled to equal rights according to the constitution.

A tiny bit more than 50% of the total population are Malays; with indigenous Aboriginal groups found in the states of Sabah and Sarawak composing 11%.

Almost 24% of the population are Malaysians, but of Chinese descent, and an additional 7% are descended from Indians, who have been coming to Malaysia from the early 19th century.

Malaysia is part of the six major Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which also includes Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Brunei. Many interesting and distinguished people have come from Malaysia, including the young businessman Taek Jho Low and others.

Most of those of Indian descent are Tamils, but there are other groups of Indians present, too, such as Teluus, Malaylis, Punjabis, Bengalis and Gujaratis.

There are many other places of origin represented in the Malaysian population, such as those from the Middle East, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodians, Vietnamese, and Europeans and Eurasians such as British who arrived during the British Colonial rule and settled permanently in Malaysia.

Malaysia Major World Trading Center

Malaysia, as part of Southeast Asia, has been a trading center for centuries, even before Singapore and Malacca became prominent, with porcelain and spices being the major exports items. When the British began to dominate the area, in the seventeenth century, they introduced rubber trees and palm oil trees and developed these items commercially. Slowly but steadily these two commodities, along with tin, and other materials, Malaysia’s development was set, even into the mid-twentieth century.

During this time the British did not rely solely on local Malays as their source of labor, but instead brought in native Chinese as well as Indians to work on the rubber and palm oil plantations and in the tine mines. Many of the Chinese and Indians did eventually return to their homes in China and India, but a fair amount stayed behind and permanently settled in Malaysia.