Exploring Access and Equity in Malaysia’s Private Higher Education

Private higher education institutions (PrHEIs) are utilized to complement public provision due to financial constraints faced in public provision. However, increasing private provision has raised interesting questions as to who gets educated in these PrHEIs. Is increasing private supply enlarging the circle of opportunity to reach those who might otherwise have been unable to enter university or college? In other words, has the explosion in private supply translated into greater inclusion or increased exclusion? This paper explores access and equity issues in Malaysia’s private higher education system. Malaysia is an interesting case study due to the significant presence of PrHEIs in the country and their contribution toward student enrolment. The findings show that the Malaysian government has provided considerable financial support for the development of PrHEIs in the country, through the provision of incentives, subsidized loans, and scholarships. Quality assurance efforts further enhance the development of private provision, as student loans and scholarships are only provided for students on accredited programs. Therefore, PrHEIs have widened access and equity in the country with the help of government support. Despite this, Malaysia’s model of providing access and equity through private provision may be unsustainable, due to the poor repayment record of student loans and the economic need to reduce the fiscal deficit of the government.malaysia education; higher education; private higher education

COMPETITIVENESS OF MALAYSIAN EXPORT

Malaysia's move toward export-promotion can be traced back to the late sixties with the enactment of the Investment Incentive Act in 1968. This shift was prompted by both the practical reality of a small dorriestic market, domestic unemployment, as well as the general perception that higher exports are positively related to a higher growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Unraveling China’s investments in Malaysia

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/Tham Siew Yean, Senior Fellow at ISEAS, Singapore, explains that “There are dimensions to China's investment that may not be so obvious to the public eye.

Outward Foreign Direct Investment from Malaysia: An Exploratory Study

Although Malaysia is well known as a host economy, there is little research on its investment abroad even though this has been steadily increasing over time. Using a case study approach based on Dunning’s OLI framework, seven firms are studied in order to understand their motivations to invest abroad as well as home and host country policies that have facilitated or hindered their investments. The main motivations for these firms to invest abroad are quite varied, ranging from the low labor cost advantage in the host country, saturation of the domestic Malaysian market, as well as the need to enhance their export-competitiveness in third-country markets and to exploit the domestic market potential in other countries. The main home country policy that has benefited the companies in their overseas investment is the full tax exemption on income earned overseas. Host country policies such as tax incentives, while attractive, are not considered to be critical in their investment decisions. Equity constraints are also not considered as obstacles.Malaysia ist als Standort für ausländische Direktinvestitionen bekannt. Obwohl in letzter Zeit die Zahl der ausländischen Investitionen aus Malaysia gestiegen ist, gibt es bislang keine Untersuchungen zu Motiven und Interessen der Investitionspolitik. Mit Hilfe des theoretischen Rahmens von Dunning werden sieben Unternehmen untersucht und nach Motivationen für Auslandsinvestitionen gefragt. Untersucht wird auch die Politik der Heimat- und Aufnehmerländer für Investitionen. Die Gründe der Firmen, im Ausland zu investieren, sind sehr unterschiedlich. Neben den Vorteilen niedriger Arbeitskosten im Gastland, der Sättigung des malaysischen Marktes und der Notwendigkeit einer höheren Wettbewerbsfähigkeit wird auch die Ausbeutung des Marktpotenzials anderer Länder genannt. Ein wesentliches Anreizinstrument des Heimatlandes ist die vollständige Steuerbefreiung für Einkommen, die im Ausland erworben werden. Als nicht entscheidend wird die Politik des Gastlandes eingeschätzt

Trade and Investment Linkages in Higher Education Services in Malaysia

This study aims to explore the trade and investment links in private higher education in Malaysia. Specifically, the study assesses whether, and if so, how trade and investment policies in general, and in the education sector in particular, are coordinated at the national level.Trade and Investment, Education Services,Mode 1,Malaysia

Industrial deepening in Malaysia: policy lessons for developing countries

The Malaysian economy has undergone substantial industrial transformation, shifting from primary commodity production to manufacturing in slightly more than 5 decades since achieving independence. However, efforts to deepen manufacturing development have not succeeded in nurturing a critical mass of domestic entrepreneurs with indigenous innovative capacities as industrialization continues to be dependent on imported technology and capital. Instead, the manufacturing sector is facing premature deindustrialization. In view of these developments, this study aims to assess the extent of industrial deepening in a country through the development of linkages, as well as the key factors that have contributed to this. This has important policy lessons for other developing countries that are following similar export-oriented, foreign direct investment-led strategies for their industrial development. The main findings of this study indicate that while trade and investment policies have contributed to the development of the manufacturing sector, they have also fostered closer integration with the rest of the world rather than within the domestic economy. The electrical and electronics subsector has relatively weaker backward linkages than other subsectors in the economy. Deepening internal integration requires complementary labor, human capital, and technology policies that can facilitate the development of linkages in the manufacturing sector

Reassessing the impact of the ASEAN-India free trade agreement

The ratifcation of the ASEAN-IndiaF ree TradeA greement( AIFTA)in 2009 signals a potentialfor increasedt radefiows betweenA SEANan d India. Previous studies havefocussedm ainly on the welfare impact of the agreementa nd its impact on overall trade, especially trade in agricultural products. Thefrst objective ofthis study seeks to compare the impact ofthe urrl on the exports ofmanufactured goodsf rom ASEANto India and vice versa. The second is to ascertain the relative importance of the scheduled tariff liberalization in the AIFTA compared with other contributory factors in the export of mandactured goods betweenA SEANa nd India. The study usesa n augmentedg ravity model as this type of model allowsfor the control of other trade related variables and to quantifu any changes in a country's trade due to the agreement.T hem ainfindings in this study indicate that ASEANga ins morefrom the scheduledt ariff liberalization in this agreement compared to India. However, the impact of tariff liberalization on the exports of manufactured goods from ASEANa nd India with each other is relatively smaller compared to other contributory factors, especially trade costs. The AIFTAw ill have to strengthens pecifc tradef acilitation measuresi n the agreementi n order to increase exports of manufactutredg oodsf rom ASEANto India and vice versa

Trade linkages of inward and outward FDI: Evidence from Malaysia

Developing and transition economies are an increasingly important source of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). The objective of this paper is to fill the gap in the literature regarding outward foreign direct investment by adopting the well known gravity model to examine the relationship between trade (export and import), inward and outward FDI using Malaysia as a case. This contributes to the literature as previous studies on OFDI in Malaysia have focused primarily on the determinants of these outward flows, and there are no studies examining the impact of OFDI on trade. Based on Hausman-Taylor estimation method, our findings reveal that inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) conforms to the observed pattern of a complementary relationship between FDI and trade, while OFDI and trade linkages are not significant as OFDI is dominated by the services sector, which generally is non-tradable. However, intra-firm trade in services could be increased through the process of fragmentation or outsourcing

Does Outward FDI Matter in International Trade? Evidence from Malaysia

Developing and transition economies are an increasingly important source of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). The objective of this paper is to fill the gap in the literature regarding outward foreign direct investment by adopting the well known gravity model to examine the relationship between trade (export and import), inward and outward FDI using Malaysia as a case. This contributes to the literature as previous studies on OFDI in Malaysia have focused primarily on the determinants of these outward flows, and there are no studies examining the impact of OFDI on trade. Our findings reveal that inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) conforms to the observed pattern of a complementary relationship between FDI and trade while OFDI and trade linkages are not significant. The empirical results also indicate that Malaysia has yet to follow the trajectory of developed economies in its shift from being a net capital importer to a capital exporter due to the lack of trade linkages between OFDI and trade. This further implies that the country may not be able to reap the potential benefits of OFDI that accrue through efficiency gains from specialization and scale advantages that are generated through trade channels

Does Outward FDI Matter in International Trade? Evidence from Malaysia

Developing and transition economies are an increasingly important source of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). The objective of this paper is to fill the gap in the literature regarding outward foreign direct investment by adopting the well known gravity model to examine the relationship between trade (export and import), inward and outward FDI using Malaysia as a case. This contributes to the literature as previous studies on OFDI in Malaysia have focused primarily on the determinants of these outward flows, and there are no studies examining the impact of OFDI on trade. Our findings reveal that inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) conforms to the observed pattern of a complementary relationship between FDI and trade while OFDI and trade linkages are not significant. The empirical results also indicate that Malaysia has yet to follow the trajectory of developed economies in its shift from being a net capital importer to a capital exporter due to the lack of trade linkages between OFDI and trade. This further implies that the country may not be able to reap the potential benefits of OFDI that accrue through efficiency gains from specialization and scale advantages that are generated through trade channels