Pembangunan urbanisasi Sarawak dan cabarannya / Rosita Hj. Suhaimi

Proses urbanisasi di Sarawak memang sudah berkembang dengan pesat. Urbanisasi di Sarawak adalah disebabkan dua(2) faktor utama, iaitu pertambahan penduduk di kawasan bandar dan peningkatan penghijrahan, khususnya di bandar Kuching, Bintulu dan Miri. Secara keseluruhan, bilangan penduduk di kawasan bandar telah bertambah setelah satu dekad berlalu, terutamanya di bandar-bandar utama seperti di Kuching, Bintulu, Miri dan Sibu. Pada tahun 1980, hanya 24.2% daripada penduduk tinggal di bandar Kuching. Keadaan ini sudah jauh berbeza pada tahun 1991, di mana 75.3% telah menetap di bandar. Ini disebabkan peningkatan penduduk ataupun disebabkan oleh penakrifan semula kawasan bandar. Bilangan penduduk di bandar terus meningkat ke 85.5% pada tahun 2000. Begitu juga bagi bandar Bintulu, Miri dan Sibu pada tahun 1991 dan 2000. Salah satu faktor yang mempercepatkan proses urbanisasi di Sarawak ialah migrasi penduduk. Daripada Band Penduduk 1991, penghijrahan antara tempat atau migrasi dalaman adalah tertinggi di Sarawak berbanding dengan negeri-negeri lain di Malaysia, iaitu 10.7%. Bandar-bandar utama menjadi penerima bersihyang besar seperti dalam tempoh 1986 - 1991, Kuching menerima 30,986 penghijrah, Miri menerima 20,800, Bintulu menerima 20,297penghijarah dan Sibu menerima 19,161 penghijrah. Pelbagai masalah telah menjadi cabaran kepada penduduk Sarawak, seperti pengangguran, kemiskinan, kesihatan kurang memuaskan, pencapaian pendidikan yang rendah, dan sosio-ekonomi luar bandar semakin merosot. Adalah dicadangkan agar beberapa tindakan strategik dilakukan agar masyarakat Sarawak dapat dimajukan pada masa hadapan

Efficiency of commercial banks in Malaysia using vaic method / Rosita Haji Suhaimi and Emerline Carol Henry

ICT has not been much considered as an important variable for intellectual capital measurement in previous studies. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (1996), ICT is best regarded asthe facilitator of knowledge creation in innovative societies. In the knowledge based economy, ICT is not only considered as a driver for change but as a tool for releasing the creative potential and knowledge embodied in people. A study of banks in UK found that Information Technology (IT) has a significant impact on intellectual capital performance (VAIC) (El-Bannany, 2008). Prior to the globalization and liberalization era, the commercial banks in Malaysia were facing stiff competition in terms of providing a variety of products and services, especially when Bank Negara opened up the financial sector to qualified foreign banks in its effort to drive domestic banks to better performance, efficiency, and innovation. Besides that, banks have been able to better serve their customers with the advance of ICT, by the usage of smart cards, ATMs, mobile banking, electronic banking, telephone banking, twenty four hour service, the overall quality of services, expanded portfolios of products and services, and better customer relationship management with the use of advanced tools and variety of products. Therefore, ICT has not only provided infinite banking opportunities to expand product and services beyond reach, but also heightens the competitions and risks faced by banks in the financial system (Voon-Chong et al, 2010). This study basically seeks to investigate to what extent the commercial banks are efficient in terms of value creation efficiency and to see whether there is a relationship between the Value Added Intellectual Coefficient(VAIC) and financial performance. Hence, this study will include ICT efficiency as another component in the VAIC method

Repayment behaviour of development financial institution borrowers / Chong Fen Nee, Rosita Haji Suhaimi and Nurhani Aba Ibrahim

This study investigates the repayment pattern of Development Financial Institutions borrowers in Sabah and Sarawak. Additionally, factors such as demographic profile, loan characteristics and borrower-lender distance are examined to determine their relationships with repayment performance. A total of two hundred and forty-two queationnaires were collected during the study period and used for the analysis. Findings showed that 43% of the respondents default their credit obligations while the remaining take between one to six months to settle their monthly arrears. When the cross-tabulation analysis was used to identify the common demographic characteristics of the defaulters, it was found that most of the defaults are male, attain a lower level of education, have a higher total number of dependents and self employed. An empirical analysis on the impact of the factors affecting repayment performance of Development Financial Institutions using logistic regression analysis suggested that Development Financial Institutions should manage the borrower-lender distance actively and impose a collateral requirement in order to mitigate default peoblems

The Relationship between Internet Usage and Gross National Income of an Emerging Economy

This study examines both the long-run and short-run relationships between the internet usage rate and the gross national income per capita of an emerging economy – Malaysia. Empirical findings from the econometrics analysis of a thirteen years time series found that there is a significant long-run and short-run relationship between these two variables. Therefore, enhancing internet usage among the public and private sectors is a relevant strategy towards achieving a higher national income status for the people in this country

Analysis of International Capital Mobility in ASEAN-5 Countries: Savings-Investment Nexus

This paper analyzes the degree of the international capital mobility via the national savings and investment relationship in ASEAN-5 countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam over the period 1980 to 2013 using panel data method. Besides, this paper also investigates the impact of the international capital mobility for three sub-periods: period prior to 1997 Asian financial crisis (1980-1996), period after the 1997 Asian financial crisis (1997-2007) and period after the 2008 global financial crisis (2008-2013). The findings of this paper indicate that the degree of the international capital mobility is at the moderate level for the period 1980 to 2013. However, the finding of the sub-periods after 1997 Asian financial crisis and 2008 global financial crisis indicating an upsurge degree of the capital mobility in ASEAN-5 countries. This might be due to the adoption of export oriented policy and the capital account liberalization in the 1990s and closer economic cooperation in the East Asia region aftermath both of the global and Asian financial crises. It is crucial for government and policy makers to monitor closely on the trend of international capital mobility to prevent financial risks as well as develop efficient policy and financial regulatory to achieve the policy coordination among the ASEAN members

Does Research and Development Expenditure Co-integrate with Gross National Income of ASEAN Countries?

In order to successfully transform into a knowledge economy and eradicate poverty, many ASEAN countries have allocated a considerable amount of their yearly expenditures in research and development over the last decade. The objective of this paper is to examine the long-run relationship between research and development expenditure and gross national income of five major ASEAN countries – Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Philippines. The results of a cross-country panel data analysis performed in this study suggest that there is a long-run cointegration relationship between these two variables. Findings imply that higher research and development expenditure has a favorable impact on the long-run prosperity of these countries

Repayment behavior of development financial Institution borrowers/ Chong Fen Nee… [et al.]

This study investigates the repayment pattern of Development Financial Institutions borrowers in Sabah and Sarawak. Additionally, factors such as demographic profile, loan characteristics and borrower-lender distance are examined to determine their relationships with repayment performance. A total of two hundred and forty-two questionnaires were collected during the study period and used for the analysis. Findings showed that 43% of the respondents default their credit obligations while the remaining take between one to six months to settle their monthly arrears. When the cross-tabulation analysis was used to identify the common demographic characteristics of the defaulters, it was found that most of the defaults are male, attain a lower level of education, have a higher total number of dependents and self employed. An empirical analysis on the impact of the factors affecting repayment performance of Development Financial Institutions using logistic regression analysis suggested that Development Financial Institutions should manage the borrower-lender distance actively and impose a collateral requirement in order to mitigate default problem's

Multi-dimensional aspects of poverty and their linkages amongst squatters in Kampong Baru Stutong, Tabuan Jaya, Kuching / Wee Chong Hui, Rosita Suhaimi and Annie Wong Muk Ngiik

This is a study on a multi-dimensional aspects of poverty. It attempts to find out the linkages amongst squatters in Kampong Baru, Kuching and their relationships with expenditure, nutrition, housing and access to piped water, electricity, sewage and income

Factors influencing successful export performance an empirical investigation on Malaysian exporting manufacturing firms / Gluma Saban... [et al.]

The most common question that has attracted much attention among scholars and practitioners is why some firms perform better while others do not. To probe further, this study focused on the key determinants of successful exporting firm performance. In spite of numerous literature on this subject, a need remains for investigating the performance of Malaysian exporting manufacturing firms. This study examines two major influences of export success: the organizational resource profile and marketing resource profile of the firm. This research explores the relationships among the firms' resources, the firms' external factors and export performance. It is guided by a model framework based on the resource-based view. The findings of this study are based on the responses obtained from a cross-sectional survey of one hundred and fifty five (155) exporting manufacturing firms throughout Malaysia. In general, the results indicate that influence of some categories of resources enables the firms to obtain superior levels of performance. Specifically, the key results of this study suggest that firm size; export experience; export marketing resources and communication management competency; export market and industry competency; export pricing of new product competency; and export information usage efficiency are the major factors that can determine the firms to achieve superior performance. Several recommendations are also presented to enable future researchers and policy makers to have greater insight in their endeavor to develop more effective policies and programmes to enhance competitiveness and greater success for Malaysian exporters

A study of knowledge workers and productivity in the commercial banking industry in Kuching / Rosita Suhaimi ...[et al.]

This study seeks to understand the relationship between knowledge workers, the banking work environment and the impact of the work environment on the productivity of the commercial banks in Kuching. The definition of the work environment includes Peter Drucker's 6 factors, namely task identification, autonomy , continuous innovation, continuous learning, importance of quality and employee as asset. Productivity of banks is measured using productivity measures such as counter transactions per day, loan applications processed/approved, values of deposits, value of credit approved, gross profit before tax, and average cost per employee