Everyone knows about Singapore’s economic development success story but I didn’t realize Malaysia was so much richer than other nearby countries.
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![David Watson 🥑](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="96" height="96"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
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This is an interesting look at inequality and the Malaysian version of affirmative action (which is popular there because it helps the Bumiputera majority at the expense of the richer Chinese majority).
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Oil is good but it seems like circuits and semiconductors are about as important as oil & gas
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The presence of ethnic Chinese people is an economic secret sauce.
I don’t think the presence of Chinese people in Malaysia explains why Malaysia is richer than China.
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Chinese diaspora, a relatively reliable path to growth
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I could imagine that proximity to Singapore would give it a big advantage.
Here's a more controversial speculation: Malaysia, like Singapore, had the advantage of, shall we say, "learning" from the British in commercial and legal matters. The other countries didn't. Contra argument: Burma.
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