Malaysia seen becoming high-income economy latest by 2028
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is expected to transform into a highincome economy between 2024 and 2028, said the World Bank.
Its lead economist (macroeconomics, trade and investment lead), Dr Richard Record, said the Malaysian economy was approaching a significant juncture and nearing its transition into a high-income and developed economy.
“Despite the shock of the Covid19 pandemic, the World Bank’s projections see the country’s likely transition from its current uppermiddle-income economy to a high-income one between 2024 and 2028,” he said after the launch of the World Bank’s “Aiming High: Navigating the Next Stage of Malaysia’s Development” report, here, yesterday.
The transition was not an easy journey as only 33 countries had transitioned to high-income status in the past 30 years, according to the World Bank.
“Malaysia has seen great success in growing from a low- to upper-middle-income economy in just one generation.”
Malaysia’s gross national income per capita grew an average 6.9 per cent per year between 1960 and 2017, while less than one per cent of the population lives below the international extreme poverty line of US$1.90 and only 2.7 per cent lives below the average poverty line among its upper-middle-income peers at US$5.50.
Additionally, the bank said Malaysia was trading with nearly 90 per cent of other countries, considerably higher than that of its transitional, regional, aspirational peer groups.
The World Bank said these successes could largely be attributed to development policies consisting of several pillars, which were outward-oriented and labour-intensive growth, investments in basic human capital to raise labour productivity and credible economic governance to maintain macroeconomic stability.
World Bank vice-president for East Asia and Pacific Victoria Kwakwa said Malaysia had the ambition to become not just a high-income economy, but one in which growth was sustainable and shared.
“A core feature of this report is to benchmark Malaysia against not just regional peers in Asean, but also against the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries with advanced economies that Malaysia seeks to join,” she said.
She said navigating the next stage of development would also require bold measures and tough reforms.