When it comes to southeast Asian powers, we seem to have only one country, Singapore.
However, what many people don't know is that 30 years ago, there was a country whose per capita GDP was 7 times that of the mainland, and ranked first among the "Four Little Tigers of Asia". Although this number has now been surpassed by the mainland, with its unique development strategy and positioning, it has become a new manufacturing center for global semiconductors. This country is Malaysia.
Malaysia can have today's diversified and stable economic structure, and "thank" an investment tycoon from Wall Street.
First, with resources and technology, who should Malaysia "thank"?
Like other Southeast Asian countries, resource exports have long been Malaysia's main source of economics. For example, in the rubber industry, in 2021, Malaysia will achieve a total rubber production of 996,000 tons, accounting for 8.8% of the global total production, and 90% of the world's condoms raw materials come from Malaysia. In addition, Malaysia's oil and gas reserves are also among the best in Southeast Asian countries. To date, Malaysia has proven crude oil reserves of 3.6 billion barrels, accounting for 0.2% of the world's total oil reserves.
From the establishment of the country independently in 1957, with abundant resources and 32 million people (equivalent to the total population of Chongqing), by 1996, Malaysia's per capita GDP had reached 4800 US dollars by exports and services alone, while China at the same time had only about 700 US dollars. At that time, Malaysia's slogan was: strive to become a developed country comparable to Western Europe by 2020!
With the passage of time, although Malaysia has not been able to achieve the same as Western Europe, its per capita output value has reached 11399 US dollars, second only to Singapore and Brunei in Southeast Asian countries. More importantly, Malaysia has successfully integrated into the global semiconductor industry chain and occupies 8% of the global market share in the global back-end semiconductor packaging field. Among them, 40% of the world's automotive grade chips are packaged and tested in Malaysia. In recent years, the global car-grade chip has caused a "chip shortage", which is also caused by the shutdown of the Malaysian factory.
At present, there are 54 semiconductor factories in Malaysia, such as Intel, Western Digital, Panasonic, Bosch and other technology giants have set up factories in Malaysia. In terms of developing the semiconductor industry and cultivating high-end talents, Singapore, the "old neighbor", can be said to have helped Malaysia a lot. Many people may wonder, are Singapore and Malaysia not old enemies, how did they come together?
Speaking of which, Malaysia can catch the express train from Singapore, thanks to one person, Wall Street investment guru, Jew - George Soros.
Second, relax financial supervision, Malaysia drink and quench thirst
Singapore and Malaysia were originally the same country, but unfortunately this friendship did not continue. Due to various contradictions, in August 1965, Malaysia unanimously passed the so-called "Secession of Singapore from the Federation of Malaya" bill. After learning the news, Lee Kuan Yew, who later became the "Father of the Nation of Singapore", choked up and said: "We have been abandoned!" "So how can Malaysia, which voluntarily abandoned Singapore, go to Singapore to cooperate?"
After experiencing rapid development in the 1980s, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia, known as the "Four Little Tigers of Asia", have begun to experience different degrees of development bottlenecks. In order to maintain the apparent "speed of development", the four emerging countries have taken almost the same measures:
First, borrow heavily to develop real estate and infrastructure, hoping to boost GDP through investment;
Second, in order to attract foreign investment, countries have deliberately relaxed their own foreign exchange controls.
Although the two "borrowing money" initiatives have made the "Four Little Asian Tigers" economy take off again, this is tantamount to drinking and quenching thirst. Fast forward to the 1997 Asian financial crisis, when Thailand's debt had reached $93 billion, Malaysia's was $45.2 billion.
If there is a loophole, it will naturally attract moths. The sub-health state of the "Four Little Tigers of Asia", which is "financially undefended and highly dependent on foreign countries", has attracted the attention of Soros, a "Wall Street predator". In 1992, Soros had just tasted the sweetness of "shorting" the pound sterling, and he would not let go of the opportunity to "give it for free".
3. "Worship" Singapore
Since the beginning of 1997, Soros has integrated a number of international floating capital groups on Wall Street, entering the markets of many southeast Asian countries, first buying local currencies through mortgage bonds, and then selling them in the international market to create the illusion of instability in local currencies.
Soros's operation did work, and many institutions began to sell Malaysian ringgit (the local currency) in the lead. After several rounds of offensives, Malaysia's foreign exchange reserves were depleted, its debt was about to mature, and its GDP plummeted by 30%. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index fell from a high of 1271 points in February 1997 to 262.7 points in September 1998, a decline of 79.33%.
In a moment of life and death, Malaysia can only find Singapore, which it has "abandoned".
Since 1998, Malaysia has taken the initiative to join the semiconductor industry system dominated by Singapore. After a few years of running-in, this cooperative model of technology from Singapore and resources and labor from Malaysia has become more and more mature. At the same time, Malaysia is also actively expanding domestic demand, upgrading the level of its manufacturing industry, and reducing its dependence on foreign investment. In this way, Malaysia has also become the fastest Southeast Asian country to recover from the impact of the Asian financial crisis.
IV. Conclusion
Today, Malaysia's economy has grown from a resource export to a multi-headed economy of industry, tourism, and real estate. Among them, the tourism industry once accounted for 12% of Malaysia's GDP, creating nearly 25% of Malaysia's jobs, the main source of tourists from Singapore, Indonesia, and The number of Chinese tourists ranked third.
In fact, in 2016, Soros launched the second raid on the Malaysian ringgit, but this time with a stable, rich and dynamic economic model, Malaysia finally foiled the Soros conspiracy.