In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

Real GDP growth in Malaysia has slowed considerably over the past decade and domestic investment, measured as a percentage of GDP, has also decreased. These trends raise doubts about whether Malaysia can attain its goal of reaching developed nation status by the year 2020 and suggest it may linger in a “middle-income trap” for years to come. In 2010, the Malaysian government launched comprehensive economic and government transformation programs designed to stimulate growth and development. The Tenth Malaysia Plan seeks to develop small- and medium-sized enterprises as powerful engines of growth.

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Burma (also known as Myanmar) may be on the verge of a dramatic expansion of international assistance. After last month’s parliamentary by-elections, there is likely to be more support for easing sanctions and increasing foreign assistance to the country to support the changes underway.

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It seemed appropriate for the last class of my semester at SAIS teaching “Domestic Politics of Southeast Asia: Philippines and Thailand,” to focus on the “troubled souths.” The two countries garner international attention for any number of reasons, but one obvious similarity is that both have Muslim minorities…

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In January, I took a break from research for the just-released Malaysia Business Environment Index (BEI), which measures perceptions of district-level firms on their business environments, to get a broader perspective…

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On May 8, The Asia Foundation launched a new data visualization tool to help policy-makers and citizens explore the findings of the new 2012 Malaysia Business Environment Index (BEI), the only diagnostic tool designed to measure the business-friendliness of local governments in the country.

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President Obama’s overnight visit to Afghanistan underscores the long-term security and financial commitment of the United States to this country in advance of the NATO Summit later this month.

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On April 28, Bersih 3.0 – a movement in Malaysia that is supported by 64 NGOs as well as the opposition party components – organized what turned out to be the largest street demonstration in Malaysia in a decade. Bersih in Malay means clean, and tens of thousands of Malaysians thronged the streets…

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Of course, the headline is something of an exaggeration of the situation here in Washington, D.C. – in the news, for example, are visits from the prime minister of Japan, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s trip to China – not to mention President Obama’s “surprise” trip to Kabul on the anniversary of Bin Laden’s death.

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The roads leading to the Kuala Lumpur’s Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) were jammed with people instead of cars on Saturday, April 28. Easily tens of thousands, though later estimates put the total figure somewhere between 200 to 300,000…

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Last week, The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia launched an online campaign with Pearson Foundation’s We Give Books initiative to help bring 5,000 new children’s books to schools in rural Indonesia. For each book read online, We Give Books will donate one new book to support…

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