Regional economic cooperation and integration through growth triangles: The case of IMS-GT

The emergence of growth triangles at the ASEAN level such as the Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore Growth Triangle (IMS – GT), Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT – GT), and Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines Growth Area (BIMP – EAGA) was aimed at promoting faster economic growth through regional economic co-operation and the integration of economic activities among the participating countries. Through growth triangles, differences and similarities in endowments of factor of production and comparative advantages in the participating countries can be exploited to promote external trade and investment. By optimizing the economic complementarities between them would enable the region to attract both domestic and foreign investment and in promoting exports. However, a successful economic cooperation and integration in this growth area requires collaborative efforts and close cooperation among the participating countries - the government as well as the private sector. The extent of mutual benefits also depends upon the degree of exploitation of economic complementarities; geographical proximity, and infrastructure development in those countries. Of the three growth triangles (IMT-GT; BIMP- EAGA; IMS-GT), the IMS-GT is the most successful sub-regional cooperation that has provided economic benefit to the member regions. Singapore being the most developed region acts as the engine of growth in this growth area. Rapid economic growth and industrialization process of Singapore’s economy has increased the needs of Singapore to relocate its labor-intensive industries to low-cost neighbouring countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. These complementarities has developed a strong linkages between Singapore – Riau as well as Singapore – Johor, but however there is not much linkage between Johor – Riau due mainly to the lack of complementarity between these two areas. The positive spillover effects help to promote economic growth in the less developed regions particularly the Riau province – Batam and Bintan Islands

Empowering older women in Malaysia: Understanding their health care demand

Understanding factors that affect health care demand by elderly women is vital for a health system to be more supportive towards women’s empowerment.This paper presents the medical care utilization of the elderly women; identify the existence of income-related inequity in health care utilization and the role of living arrangements of the elderly on health care utilization among the elderly women in Kedah State.A total number of 202 of respondents aged 62 to 95 were interviewed face-to-face using a structured questionnaire.The Probit and Poisson model were used in estimating the demand equation. It is found that income, after controlling for other socioeconomic and health related factors, is not statistically significant in affecting the likelihood of doctor visits, and the frequency of the visits.The role of living arrangement, as measured by marital status and the number of individual aged 18 and over living together is also not significant in both models.This result suggests that older women in the area of study can somehow make independent decisions regarding their health care demand, which demand should ideally base on health status rather than not other factors

Pembiayaan awam negeri Kedah

Analisis terhadap hasil dan perbelanjaan negeri telah menunjukkan bahawa kedudukan fiskalnya sentiasa mengalami defisit.Kertas ini juga cuba melihat, sejauhmanakah penglibatan kerajaan negeri, menerusi belanjawannya, untuk meningkalkan pertumbuhan ekonomi dan kedudukan sosio-ekonomi rakyatnya. Peruntukan-peruntukan kewangan dalam Perlembagaan Malaysia secara tak langsung telah mewujudkan ketakseimbangan fisikal antara Kerajaan Persekutuan dengan kerajaan-kerajaan negeri. Walaupun Kerajaan Persekutuan menyedari hakikat ini dan memberi gran kepada kerajaan negeri namun masih wujud ketakseimbangon fisikal di kalangan kerajaan-kerajaan negeri.Ini dicerminkan oleh keterbatasan dalam pengutipan hasil dengan meluas dan mjejaskan pembiayaan perbelanjaan negeri dalam perbelanjaan mengurus dan pembangunan

Providing micro-finance service for micro-enterprise: Performance of selected micro-finance institutions in Malaysia

Like other developing countries, microfinance programs have been part of the poverty alleviation strategy in reaching the poor who are normally excluded from the formal credit sector. The inaccessibility of the poor to credit was mainly due to lack of good collateral or guarantors to qualify them for existing bank products. The microfinance programs as an approach taken to eradicate poverty is believed to be able in helping the poor to expand their economic activities and thus increase their income level as it open up the accessibility of the poor to credit. As such, to achieve its utmost impact on the poor, the development of effective and efficient microfinance institutions (MFIs) and improvement in the accessibility of the products and services provided by these institutions are crucial. This paper discusses the role and microfinance programs provided by two microfinance institutions in Malaysia, namely, the Bank Pertanian Malaysia (BPM) and Tabung Ekonomi Kumpulan Usaha Niaga (TEKUN). In specific, we examine their performance in terms of the products and services offered, delivery mechanism, outreach and its sustainability

Developing an indicator of poverty liableness through an analysis of household risk management strategies: a case towards the development of a formal social protection scheme in Malaysia

Malaysia has been recognized as one of the countries that has successfully reduced the problem of poverty among its population. In 1970, the poverty level stood at 49.3 percent of the total population. The rate was later reduced to 8.1 percent in 1999 before reaching 3.7 percent in 2011 (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2011). However, the recent trend in the literature that moved towards the reconceptualisation of poverty in terms of insecurity or vulnerability, have brought out another issue of how poverty should be tackled in Malaysia.In this study, we examined how rural households in Malaysia behaved when faced with a risk and how this would affect their livelihood and therefore the level of vulnerability to poverty.For this purpose, we have conducted a survey on 499 rural households across all the states in Peninsular Malaysia. Our findings show that rural households in Malaysia faced a variety of risks and they have employed several strategies in order to cope with the risks. However, not all these strategies are effective in dealing with the risk and this has resulted in a negative impact on the livelihood of the households.Our study also found that income and savings level are the main factors that will determine the odds for a household to recover from a crisis.The findings of this study imply that there is room for the government or any other relevant authorities to intervene to improve the availability and effectiveness of risk coping strategies of rural households in Malaysia

Understanding the demand for medical care by the elderly in Kedah: A preparation towards population ageing

Understanding factors that affect health care demand by the elderly is vital for a health system to be more responsive in providing care to this special group.Since health care demand studies at micro level are rather limited within Malaysia context, this research attempts to reduce the gap by focusing on elderly demand.The objectives of this study are to (i) profile the medical care utilisation of the elderly by demographic factors, (ii) identify the existence of income-related inequity in health care utilisation among older age groups, and (iii) identify the role of living arrangements of the elderly on health care utilisation among the elderly in Kedah state.There are two types of demand used for this study, which are doctor visits and inpatient stays.A multistage cluster sampling was used in selecting the sample for the study.A total number of 399 of respondents aged 62 to 98 were interviewed face-to-face using a structured questionnaire.The probit and Poisson model with robust variance estimates were used in estimating the demand equation.It is found that income, after controlling for other socioeconomic and health related factors, is statistically significant in affecting the likelihood of doctor visits, but not the frequency.There is no evidence of income-related inequity for inpatient stays. The role of living arrangement, as measured by marital status and the number of individual aged 18 and over living together, however, is not so profound. Some control variables, on the other hand, show a significant effect. This is evident that health condition is not the only factor that determines health care demand of the elderly in Kedah state.The findings from this analysis imply that the government’s policy to reduce income inequality may indirectly control the income-related inequity in health care demand. In addition, support programs in the community need to be intensified to raise awareness of health and consequently reduce unnecessary visits to health services

Adolescent to Adolescent Transformation Program- Nurturing, Enhancing and Promoting Adolescents’ Healthy Habit (ATAP-NEPAH): Curbing Social Problems Among Adolescents in Kelantan Through Peer-To-Peer Health Education

The objectives of ATAP-NEPAH are to enhance and nurture healthy habits among adolescents as well as to empower adolescents in inculcating these healthy habits among them. Health education through peer-to-peer approach is used to instill the knowledge on important areas such as sexual and reproductive health, smoking, substance abuse, illegal street racing (rempit) and mental health. Specific modules were developed by experts (lecturers) in multidisciplinary fields in collaboration with Malaysian Association for Adolescent Health (MAAH), National Population and Family Development Board (NPFDB), Reproductive Health Association of Kelantan (REHAK) and Rhaudatus Sakinah Kelantan. The trained Medical Students Facilitator Team (MSFT) of USM became trainers to secondary one school students. The selected school students were trained by the medical students to become peer educators to their juniors and peers. There was improvement in the readiness level of peer educators, knowledge and attitude towards healthy habits and risky behaviors of other school students after the intervention

The demand for health care by the elderly in Kedah: Do enabling factors matter?

Understanding factors that affect health care demand by the elderly is vital for the health system to be more responsive in providing care to this special group.Since health care demand studies at micro level are rather limited within Malaysia context, this research attempts to reduce the gap by focusing on elderly demand.The main objective of this paper is to identify the effect of enabling factors on health care demand by the elderly in Kedah, Malaysia.Enabling factors are factors that may support demand.We concentrate on two enabling factors which are individual total income and social capital. Informal interaction with the surrounding community is used to represent social capital.Health care demand in in this paper is measured by whether the respondents have had a doctor visit in the past one month before the interview.A multistage cluster sampling was used in selecting the sample for the study.A total of 399 of respondents aged 62 to 98 were interviewed face-to-face using a structured questionnaire.A probit model with robust variance estimates was used in estimating the demand equation.It is found that both income and social capital, after controlling for other socioeconomic and health related factors, are statistically significant in affecting demand. The higher the income is, the higher the likelihood to visit a doctor.On the other hand, the informal interaction in the society has reduced the likelihood for doctor visit.This is evident that health condition is not the only factor that determines health care demand of the elderly in Kedah state.The findings from this analysis imply that the government’s policy to reduce income inequality of the people may indirectly reduce the income-related inequity in health care demand.In addition, support programs in the community need to be intensified to raise awareness of health and consequently reduce unnecessary visits to health services