Malaysia was formed in 1963 through a merging of the former British colonies of Malaya and Singapore, including the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak on the northern coast of Borneo.

Malaysia, a middle income country, transformed its economy from 1971 through the late 1990s from relying primarily on the production and export of raw materials, into one of the world's leading trading nations in electronics and information technology (IT) goods. This success has been attributed to a development model based on private sector led growth, with social equity.

Today, utilizing its diverse resource base (energy, raw materials, manufactured goods and information technology products ) and coupled with healthy foreign exchange reserves and relatively small external debt, Malaysia continues its economic success via the promotion of both domestic and foreign based growth engines to help Malaysia achieve its goal of becoming a "developed" nation by the year 2020.

For more information on our Malaysia affairs, please contact:
Marc Mealy
Senior Director, Brunei, Malaysia, and Philippines Affairs
Coordinator, Financial Services Working Group
mmealy@usasean.org

The US-ASEAN Business Council serves as the Secretariat for the US-Malaysia Free Trade Agreement Business Coalition launched on March 8, 2006 in Washington, DC. Please click here to visit the Coalition's page.

Please contact Marc Mealy at mmealy@usasean.org for upcoming Malaysia event in the works.

more upcoming events

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more headline news

Meeting with
H.E. Dato' Sri Najib Tun Razak
Then-Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia

Washington, DC
November 24, 2008

The US-ASEAN Business Council held a very small and private meeting with Malaysia’s Then-Deputy Prime Minister Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak (above, left) at the offices of the Council. H.E. Dato' Seri Najib was sworn in as Prime Minister of Malaysia on April 3, 2009, replacing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

For a copy of the Meeting Report, click here (Council members only).

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Dialogue with H.E. Muhyiddin Yassin
Minister of Trade & Industry

New York, NY
May 19, 2008

On May 19th, the US-ASEAN Business Council held a dialogue with Malaysia’s new Minister of International Trade and Industry, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (above, left). Minister Muhyiddin, a former Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, and Chief Minister (Governor) of the state of Johor was appointed on March 18th, replacing Rafidah Aziz Malaysia’s Trade Minister for the last 21 years. Minister Muhyiddin was in New York leading his first trade and investment mission to the United States.

The Dialogue was generously supported by Council Members Dell, GE, and Oracle. For a dialogue report summary, please click here (Council members only).

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US-Malaysia Business Council's
Chair:

Joseph Alhadeff,
Oracle

Vice Chair:

Orit Frenkel,
General Electric Company

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GDP: $357.9 billion (2007 est.)
GDP Growth Rate: 5.8% (2007 est.)

Export-Import

U.S. export to Malaysia: $ 11.7 billion (2007)
U.S. import from Malaysia: $ 32.8 billion (2007)

Currency Rate

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The Honorable James Keith
United States Ambassador to Malaysia