Managing structural change and industrialization: heavy industrialization: the Malaysian experience

Abstract

Although Malaysia's heavy industrialization experience is quite typical of many other developing countries, it may provide some useful lessons in industrial development strategy." The aim of this paper is to analyse the heavy industrialization strategy implemented in Malaysia during the 1980's and to distill some useful guidelines for other developing countries which may be contemplating the adoption of a similar strategy. Following the introduction, Section 2 discusses the three major phases of industrial development in a developing country. This provides the framework for Section 3 which describes the course of Malaysia's industrial development during the last four decades. The aim here is to analyse Malaysia's industrial development in order to provide an objective perspective for assessing the various dimensions of Malaysia's heavy industries experience. Section 4 focuses on the heavy industrialization phase of Malaysia's industrial development and examines the problems and successes while Section 5 attempts to draw some useful lessons from that experience for other developing countries. The section concludes with an assessment of the prospects for Malaysia's manufacturing sector up to the Year 2020.