The role and outlook for Malaysia's primary commodities and action strategy

Abstract

Malaysia plays a leading role both as a producer and exporter of a number of inportant primary commodites. In so doing we have come a long way from the time when rubber and tin together constitude the twin pillars of the economy accounting for over two-thirds of the country's total export earnings. This was in the early fifties. In line with our national development to diversify the Malaysia economy to avoid over dependance on just one or two commodities, timber, palm oil, petroleum have become important items in the list of primary commodity. In addition there are other export commodities such as pepper, pineapple, copper and cocoa of which, our pepper export forms a significant portion of world export whilst cocoa is expected to increase appreciably in the future. The agricultural and mining sectors of which primary commodities occupy a substantial part, contributes approximately a third of the Gross Domestic Product and about fifty percent of the total employment in the country. Excluding petroleum, primary commodities exports generally account for about 60% of our total export earnings.