Monetary & Banking 

 

Country name:

conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Malaysia
former: Federation of Malaysia

 

Capital:

Kuala Lumpur. Population: 1.8 million (2007 estimate).

 

Location:

Southeastern Asia, peninsula bordering Thailand and northern one-third of the island of Borneo, bordering Indonesia, Brunei, and the South China Sea, south of Vietnam

 

Area:

329,750 sq km (127,317 sq miles).

 

Description:
Malaysia is situated in central South-East Asia, bordering Thailand in the north, with Singapore to the south and Indonesia to the south and west. It is composed of Peninsular Malaysia and the states of Sabah and Sarawak on the north coast of the island of Borneo, 650 to 950km (404 to 600 miles) across the South China Sea. Peninsular Malaysia is an area of forested mountain ranges running north-south, on either side of which are low-lying coastal plains. The coastline extends some 1,900km (1,200 miles).
 

 

 

Population:

25.2 million (2008 estimate).
 

 

Languages:

Bahasa Melayu is the national and official language, but English is widely spoken. Other languages such as Chinese (Cantonese and Hokkien), Iban and Tamil are spoken by minorities.
 

 

Climate:
Tropical without extremely high temperatures. Days are very warm and often humid, while nights are fairly cool. The main rainy season in the east runs between November and February, while August is the wettest period on the west coast. East Malaysia has heavy rains (November to February) in Sabah and in Sarawak. However, it is difficult to generalise about the country's climate, as rainfall differs on the east and west coasts according to the prevailing monsoon winds (northeast or southwest). Average daytime temperatures in Kuala Lumpur are around 27?�C (82?�F) year round.

Economy - overview:
A fully-fledged ��?tiger' economy, from the 1970s onwards Malaysia's GDP grew rapidly at around 10% annually. However, in 1997 the Asian financial crisis brought this process to a shuddering halt. Malaysia has recovered reasonably well since then, although the headlong pre-1997 expansion has been replaced by a more measured pace of growth of around 4 to 5.5% each year, reaching 6.3% in 2007. Inflation was around 3% in 2007.

Healthy foreign exchange reserves, low inflation and a small external debt are all strengths that make it unlikely that a financial crisis similar to 1997 will re-occur. The Ringgit/US Dollar peg was abolished in July 2005. This has not resulted in any major change to the exchange rate.

Malaysia is a member of the Pacific Rim organisation APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Forum), which is assuming an increasingly important role in the regional economy. Business Contacts

National Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia 6A, 6th Floor, Menara BGI, Plaza Berjaya, 12 Jalan Imbi,
55100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: (03) 2141 9600.
Website: www.nccim.org.my


Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI)
PO Box 12921, 50792 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: (03) 6201 7708.
Website: www.micci.com

Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA) Block 4, Plaza Sentral, Jalan Stesen Sentral 5, 50470 Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: (03) 2267 3633.
Website: www.mida.gov.my

Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) in the UK 17 Curzon Street, London W1J 5HR, UK
Tel: (020) 7499 5255.
Website: www.matrade.gov.my

Economy:
A fully-fledged ��?tiger' economy, from the 1970s onwards Malaysia's GDP grew rapidly at around 10% annually. However, in 1997 the Asian financial crisis brought this process to a shuddering halt. Malaysia has recovered reasonably well since then, although the headlong pre-1997 expansion has been replaced by a more measured pace of growth of around 4 to 5.5% each year, reaching 6.3% in 2007. Inflation was around 3% in 2007.

Healthy foreign exchange reserves, low inflation and a small external debt are all strengths that make it unlikely that a financial crisis similar to 1997 will re-occur. The Ringgit/US Dollar peg was abolished in July 2005. This has not resulted in any major change to the exchange rate.

Malaysia is a member of the Pacific Rim organisation APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Forum), which is assuming an increasingly important role in the regional economy. Business Contacts

National Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia 6A, 6th Floor, Menara BGI, Plaza Berjaya, 12 Jalan Imbi,
55100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: (03) 2141 9600.
Website: www.nccim.org.my


Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI)
PO Box 12921, 50792 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: (03) 6201 7708.
Website: www.micci.com

Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA) Block 4, Plaza Sentral, Jalan Stesen Sentral 5, 50470 Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: (03) 2267 3633.
Website: www.mida.gov.my

Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) in the UK 17 Curzon Street, London W1J 5HR, UK
Tel: (020) 7499 5255.
Website: www.matrade.gov.my
 

 

Industries:

Peninsular Malaysia - rubber and oil palm processing and manufacturing, light manufacturing industry, electronics, tin mining and smelting, logging and processing timber; Sabah - logging, petroleum production; Sarawak - agriculture processing, petroleum production and refining, logging