The 9Th Methodist Convention - The Future Of Sarawak From A Christian Perspective - Part 4

Over the past 18 years, Malaysia recorded remarkably high growth. But the statistical figures show that we are now declining in our growth rates.

This calls for concern.

A high-level assessment of four groups of comparable countries over the past 50 years may give us an insight into the urgency of the concern.

Group 1 comprises of countries with the same starting point as Malaysia but are now lower than us in income status. These include Sri Lanka, Philipines, Morocco and Senegal.

In Group 2, the countries started off at a similar footing as Malaysia but are now far better off than us. You see them in Taiwan , South Korea and Singapore.

Group 3 includes those countries that shone economically in the past but have now dwindled to the same Middle-Income bracket as Malaysia. The notable examples are Argentina and Venezuela.

The fouth group makes up of nations that flourished but later sank badly. However, with sound economic policy corrections, they picked up, achieved major shifts and are now outperforming Malaysia. Chile and Ireland are two of the outstanding cases. Ireland boldly changed and perked up in 1987. The country now shines brighter than Malaysia.

The above Historical Analysis of Economic Development Across Nations teaches us four lessons:

1. A country's position in the world today can have little bearing on its future position:
- Argentina and Venezuela
- South Korea and Taiwan
2. The future of similarly-developed economies can, in as short a time-span as a single
generation, turn out to be markedly different:
-South Korea and Taiwan versus Malaysia
3 The resilience of a country's economic development is not necessarily tied to the past trends
or quality of previous developmental policies:
- Argentina and Venezuela
- Chile
4. "Right" changes in economic policy can deliver a burst in economic activity within a
remarkedly short time:
-Ireland