The World Bank Group in Malaysia
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t -.;z1 Public Disclosure Authorized THE World Bank Public Disclosure Authorized Group IN MALAYSIA Public Disclosure Authorized INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL FINANCE CORPORATION INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION January 1967 Public Disclosure Authorized BASIC STATISTICS AREA: Malaya 50,700 sq. m. Sabah 29,388 sq. m. Sarawak 48,250 sq. m. Malaysia (total) 128,338 sq. m. POPULATION ( 1965 estimate): Malaya 8,052,000 Sabah 520,000 Sarawak 830,000 Malaysia (total) 9,402,000 Growth (1957-1965): 2.9% p.a. GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT: 1965 estimate $2,780.0 million Growth rate 1960-65 5.0 per cent per annum 1964-65 6.8 per cent per annum Per capita US$ 294.0 million Per capita growth rate in real national income ( 1958-65) 3.5 per cent per annum CONTRIBUTION TO GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT: Percentage Agriculture . 34 Mining and Quarrying . 7 Manufacturing . 7 Construction . 5 Distributive Trades . 16 Government and Defense Services . 12 Others . 19 One Malayan dollar = US$ ~.327 THE WORLD BANK GROUP IN MALAYSIA January 1967 HE FEDERATION of Malaysia emerged in September 1963 T as a combination of the former Federation of Malaya, the island State of Singapore and the dependent States of Sabah and Sarawak in Borneo. The new federation endured only briefly in this form, however, and in August 1965, less than two years after its birth, the structure of the Federation was changed by the separation of Singapore. Singapore has since become an independent republic. Malaysia as a political unit now comprises the States of Malaya, known as West Malaysia, and the two Borneo States, known as East Malaysia. Malaysia, in its present form, is a diverse multiracial society. In West Malaysia, which accounts for about six-sevenths of the Federation's population, about half of the people are Malays, another 37 per cent are of Chinese origin and another 11 per cent are from the Indian sub-continent. In East Malaysia Malay people form only a minority of the population. The majority are indigenous groups-mainly the Dayaks in Sarawak and the Kadazans in Sabah. Another significant proportion of the population is Chinese. Malaysia, traditionally, has been a primary commodity ex port economy relying for viability on a few export items, most notably rubber and tin. Rubber production alone still directly involves half the cultivated land, one-quarter of the labor force and constitutes one-sixth of gross domestic product. But the outstanding general feature of Malaysian economic experience in recent years has been the gradual, but significant, movement away from reliance on these staple exports. In the past five years export earnings have stagnated because increases in volume of production have been offset by the falling trend in the world price for rubber. But despite this dampening influ ence-in an economy where, until recently, more than half of all output was exported-Malaysia has succeeded in sustaining a high level of growth. 1 In the period 1958-1965 Malaysia's real gross national product grew by about 6.4 per cent per year, and despite the adverse export price trends, a real income growth of 5 per cent has been maintained since 1960. This has been due largely to an acceleration of output for the domestic market. Output in manufacturing, building and construction, fish and poultry products and a group of service trades now account for about 39 per cent of Malaysia's net output, compared with 33 per cent only five years ago. This growth within an energetic private sector has been underpinned by public sector invest ment in power and water utilities, transport facilities and com munications and other areas of infrastructure. About a third of the growth in the net value of output in manufactured goods has been in goods destined for capital formation rather than consumption. Principally as a result of public sector investment demand, investment rose from 13 per cent of GNP in 1958 to 19.5 per cent in the years 1963, 1964 and 1965. Private savings remained at a remarkably high rate during this period, but were not sufficient to match both a continuing healthy rate of private investment and the gap be tween public sector capital formation and public sector savings. As a result, Malaysia's deficit on external account has tended to increase since 1961. But the effect of this up till now on foreign exchange reserves has been more than offset by Malaysia's capacity to attract long-term capital, particularly to the private sector. Pressure on the balance of payments dur ing the period has also been relieved to some extent by success ful import substitution. About 10 per cent of the increase in output for domestic use in the 1960-64 period can be regarded as import substitution. Malaysia's performance in maintaining rapid growth in the face of relative stagnation in export returns is a considerable achievement. Important factors in this performance have been the provision of a sound and adequate infrastructure as a base for industrial growth and the existence of public leadership prepared to pursue vigorously the tasks of overall development. Other influences have been continued political stability within 2 the component states of Malaysia, stable prices, a soundly based and freely exchangeable currency and relatively ad vanced capital markets. These factors have together provided the setting for private investment initiative and the private sector has responded vigorously. A combination of public and private endeavor continues to be the main strength of the Malaysian economy. THE WORLD BANK'S PART The World Bank Group, at the invitation of the Malayan and subsequently the Malaysian-authorities, has been able to contribute to this economic progress. World Bank loans, prin cipally for electric power, have helped form a suitable founda tion for the enterprise and initiative which has come from the private sector. Loans and investment commitments made by the World Bank Group in Malaysia since 1958 totalled US$173.4 million by the end of 1966. Bank Group assistance in the form of technical advice and evaluation has also made an important contribution. The Bank's advice on overall and sectoral eco nomic planning has been used in shaping the first two Malayan development plans and the subsequent First Malaysia Plan (1966-70). The Bank has also helped identify and prepare individual development projects. LENDING FOR POWER In the late fifties, it became apparent that demand arising from a variety of sources-from growth in tin mining opera tions and industrial production generally, and from accelerat ing private consumption and commercial usage-would create an urgent need for additional electric power generating capac ity in the years immediately ahead. The Malayan Government decided that the most economical means of beginning to pro vide this extra capacity was to utilize the country's potential for efficient hydro power production lying in its combination of abundant rainfall and a topography which permits development of high head generating plants in the water courses. 3 4 The first step in a planned series of hydro power develop ments to meet expanding industrial and consumption demand was a project to harness the waters of four small rivers-the Telom, Kial, Habu and Bertram-on the Cameron Highlands plateau, about 100 miles north of Kuala Lumpur. The waters of the four rivers were combined to drive the turbines of two new power stations-a 5,500-kilowatt intermediate station at Habu and a much bigger underground station, with four 25,000-kilowatt generators, at Jor. The World Bank made its first Malayan loan in 1958 to meet the foreign exchange cost of this project-the biggest single development project in the Federation at the time. The Bank loan for $28.6 million was to Malaya's Central Electricity Board (known now as the National Electricity Board), an organization established in 1949 to operate the power plants and distribution facilities of the Federal Government and to regulate electricity supplies generally in the Federation. The project increased the capacity of the central power network operated by the Board by about 50 per cent, making it possible to meet rising demand in the Kuala Lumpur area and the States of Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Malacca, while also enlarging the network to serve other areas. In the late fifties and early sixties sales of electric power through the National Electricity Board had been increasing at an average rate of 12.6 per cent per year as industrial and commercial activity expanded. Domestic consumption grew almost as fast. In August 1963 the Bank made a further loan of $51. 9 million to the Electricity Board to assist the financing of a scheme to complete a second stage in the Cameron High lands hydro power project as well as completing a first stage in a thermal power scheme located on reclaimed land on the seashore in Province Wellesley in Northern Malaya. In addi tion, transmission facilities were expanded in such a way as to interconnect most major generating stations on the western side of West Malaysia. This expansion and interconnection of transmission systems was designed to allow both hydro and thermal capacity to operate at maximum efficiency. 5 The first stage of the Cameron Highlands scheme had been designed to discharge its outfall into the Batang Padang River with a useful total head of some 2,000 feet. The second stage was able to utilize this discharge in combination with the head waters of the Batang Padang, Sekan and Woh and a number of smaller streams. This second stage-known as the Batang Padang scheme-was designed to operate in conjunc tion with other existing hydro and thermal power generating stations by supplying peak power during periods of low flow and base load power during periods of high flow.