Socio-economic transformation of less developed countries : the Malaysian experience

Abstract EN

The aim of this paper is to highlight the main development conditions and policies which helped in transforming Malaysia's backward society into a developed nation, and to indicate how other LDCs can benefit from this experience in achieving their socio-economic transformation.

This paper focuses on six main points: 1) examine the socio-economic conditions in Malaysia, 2)study the main development policies and strategies adopted since 1970, 3)analyze the human resource base in Malaysia, 4) highlight the country's major development achievements, 5) discuss the main factors and conditions contributing to the socio-economic transformation of Malaysia, and 6) present the main conditions and policies necessary to help other developing countries to step out of the underdevelopment vicious cycle and achieve social and economic positive transformation.

The main finding of this paper is that socio-economic transformation is an achievable objective and LDCs can substantially improve their social and economic levels depending on the available appropriate conditions and through applying certain development policies.