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Malaysia a model for growth: Sachs

Jeffrey Sachs

Kuala Lumpur: The renowned economist, Prof Jeffrey Sachs, has said that poverty in Malaysia can be erased by 2010. He was delivering a lecture at the international conference on “Poverty and Distribution Amidst Diversity” at Unversiti Malaya here.

Prof Sachs commended the positive actions taken by the Government to eradicate poverty and said that extreme deprivation would be a thing of the past in the country in a couple of years.

At the conference, Prof Sachs was declared the first holder of the Royal Professor of Ungku Aziz Chair, reports New Straits Times here.

According to the economist, Malaysia was by far the most successful developing nation with a tropical resource background.

He said the country can serve as an example for other poverty-stricken countries in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. Prof Sachs advocated adopting a holistic approach towards tackling poverty rather than depending solely on the “trickle down effect” of economic growth.

“I believe in mass scale intervention like the regional development initiated by the Chinese Government for western China. I believe infrastructure, health and education play a large role in solving the problem of poverty,” the newspaper reported Prof. Sachs as saying. The professor is planning to work with the university’s Centre for Poverty and Development Studies to draw upon Malaysia’s success and experience in undertaking poverty alleviation to formulate policies and programmes for other countries in the region.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA) here said the country is among the top three growth centres among the emerging markets.

Top officials of MIDA told a group of foreign journalists visiting the country that the Malaysian economy has registered a GDP growth of 5.3 per cent last year and was estimated to grow at 6 per cent this year.

The per capita income was $5,334 and inflation prevailed at 2.5 per cent.

The unemployment rate was 3.5 per cent and the country had a trade surplus of $37.3 billion. The internal reserves stood at $94.5 billion as on May 15 this year, the officials said.

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