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Recent and Prospective Population Trends in Malaysia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

Gavin W. Jones  and
P. C. Tan
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Extract

For many years now, the Malaysian government's population policy has included both a growth component and a distribution component. The growth component, adopted in the Second Malaysia Plan (1971–75) and still in force, was the goal of reducing the rate of population growth from 3 per cent to 2 per cent by 1985. The distribution component, first enunciated in a coherent way in the Mid-Term Review of the Second Malaysia Plan, is a strategy for regional development with direct population redistribution consequences. The Third Malaysia Plan (1976–80) elaborated the population situation and goals in greater detail but their broad thrust remained essentially unchanged. The Fourth Plan (1981–85), while maintaining the target of lowered growth rates, emphasized the quality of human resources and was sanguine about the prospects for economic development far outstripping the rate of population growth. Indeed, earlier concern with unemployment had been replaced by worries about the emergence of labour shortages.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , September 1985 , pp. 262 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1985

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References

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18 Briefly, the labour force will grow more rapidly than it would have with slower population growth, and it will be more difficult both to raise the proportion of the eligible population given secondary and tertiarylevel education and to increase the capital investment per worker. Because of the more abundant, less highly skilled labour force, wages will be held to lower levels than they would otherwise be, and this will encourage labour-intensive industries and production techniques.

19 For a recent summary of the evidence, see Rodgers, G., Poverty and Population: Approaches and Evidence (Geneva: I.L.O., 1984).Google Scholar

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