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The rapid global economic development over the past two decades has been accompanied by rising energy demand and CO 2 emission rates. Understanding the driving forces of CO 2 emissions is necessary for future energy planning and policy formulation. This paper examines the driving factors behind the increase in CO 2 emissions in Malaysia with special focus on the manufacturing, electricity and transportation sectors. The paper extends the Kaya identity by incorporating energy mix, investment efficiency, capital-labor substitution, population-to-employment, urbanization rates, and per capita CO 2 , along with the standard variables including economic activity, economic structure, and energy intensity. The paper also evaluates if any macroeconomic instability (economic crisis) in the country has led to reduction in emission rates. The study utilizes the latest country data, covering the period 2002–2016. The result shows that, while economic activity is always associated with CO 2 emissions, more efficient energy use would help restrain the rise in emission rates without hampering economic growth regardless of economic structure. Emission reduction targets in Malaysia should be reinforced with an appropriate economic restructuring that restrains the economic structure effect. Due to the extensive energy use in the transportation and electricity generation, future emission control should focus more on these sectors. • The paper identifies the factors affecting CO 2 emissions, considering the economic, technical, and social aspects. • The study investigates whether the economic downturn induces further emission control. • Results indicate economic activities and urbanization process are the main driving factors. • Energy efficiency, renewable energy use, and capital-labor substitution should be strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate long-run relationship between economic growth and disaggregated energy consumption in Malaysia. Toda-Yamamoto (T-Y), the modified Granger causality test, along with annual disaggregated energy and real GDP growth data from 1971 to 2014 was used in the investigation process. This paper presents several outcomes; firstly, this paper argues that the Malaysian economy is energy dependent and sensitive to energy supply shocks. Secondly, the usage of energy inputs in Malaysian economy is found to be consumed inefficiently meaning that usage of higher energy resources does not contribute the economic growth significantly, rather causes environmental pollution badly. Thirdly, the finding indicates that economic growth and environmental pollution through spreading carbon emissions are responsive to each other. In this circumstance, the Malaysian economy has to find a way to consume the energy inputs efficiently so that economic growth is improved, while negative externality in the environment is reduced. Therefore, the study presents significant policy implications in order to improve the energy efficiency and reduce environmental pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, Malaysia has experienced exceptional growth, progressing from primarily agriculture-based to a more developed manufacturing-based industrial economy. The natural rubber industry has been an important sector for Malaysia's economic development, contributing RM33.7 billion (USD101.1billion) or 4.69% of the country's Gross Domestic Profit (GDP) in 2013. This paper aims to apply the industrial symbiosis (IS) concept to the proposed Rubber City bilateral industrial development in Kedah, Malaysia. The concept of IS can be considered a strategic tool to enhance environmental and socio-economic sustainability of rubber industry. This paper involves stakeholder analysis of IS to identify strategic priorities and opportunities for the Rubber City initiative. The IS framework focuses on three main natural rubber downstream products: natural rubber blocks, tyres, and gloves; and identifies synergies in resource cycles and waste management using Materials Flow Analysis (MFA) and the Input-Output (IO) data based on previous Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) data for each of the three natural rubber products. Based on this case study, we identified ten principal synergies which include five potential IS industries integrated within the RC conceptual framework. Stakeholder surveys of natural rubber processors and other actors (such as government agencies) were conducted in Malaysia to identify barriers and enabling factors for IS implementation in the Rubber City. The outcomes of this study will be used as basis for integrated strategic development plan and implementation approach towards a sustainable Rubber City development in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines prerequisites for a successful inter-state economic corridor development program in a country with a federal system of government through an in-depth study of the design, implementation and the developmental impact of the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) in Malaysia that encompasses the states of Penang, Kedah, Perak and Perlis. The analysis suggests that the NCER has the potential to leverage on the core strengths of the state of Penang—global connectivity, mature business eco-system with a strong presence of multinational enterprises, and sizeable talent pool—in order to redress the widening inter-regional and urban–rural development divide. However, so far, the achievements have not matched the expectations primarily because of an inherent institutional limitation of the program: failure to constitute the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) with adequate power and operational flexibility to achieve the overarching goal of shared growth while ensuring compliance from all stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1990s Malaysia aspired to make biotechnology and bioeconomy as her engines of economic growth to utlise the abundance of natural resources and biodiversity. The public sector plays an integral role in developing the sector and various incentives are in place for the private sector to be actively involved and to forge collaboration with the public sector. The country launched its National Biotechnology Policy in 2005 and later launched its National Bioeconomy Programme in 2010 to become the first country in South East Asia and second in Asia after China to have such an initiative. Malaysia is also very proactive in its biosafety law and regulations and has most of the related legal instrument in place. A lot of success has been recorded since the inception of the National Biotechnology Policy in terms of job creation, contribution to GDP through biobusinesses and investment from foreign companies, but the sector is not spared from challenges too. Due to the nature of the discipline that is multidisciplinary and that requires huge amount of investment, expertise and political will, there are a lot of barriers before the country emerges as a bioeconomy player. This paper discusses the public policies, initiatives and funding mechanisms in place in Malaysia that drive its research, development and commercialisation in the area of biotechnology and bioeconomy. The authors also discuss the challenges faced in Malaysia in implementing the policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia is located in Southeast Asia near the equator within the typical tropical climatic zone. The efficient use of energy is vital due to the dependency on fossil resources that are being exhausted, which ultimately cause CO 2 emissions. Economic development and population growth are deemed to affect the growing energy demand in the country. Therefore, sustainability, energy security, and climate change are crucial challenges for the power sector in Malaysia. The aforementioned issues can be tackled with energy efficient measures in the building sector. Buildings in Malaysia consume 14.3% of the overall energy and 53% of only electrical energy is being consumed in residential and commercial sectors. Therefore, energy efficiency in buildings is crucial in order to reduce the energy use and improve the local environmental sustainability. This paper discusses a review on the building energy scenario, the policy perspectives, building energy efficiency programs along with landmark buildings and their characteristics. Besides, the potential of renewable energy resources in buildings and various prospective issues and challenges faced by the country have also been discussed. The significant review content thus benefits researchers, scientists and practitioners for a better understanding on energy efficiency and the sustainable measures that have been so far taken. The review also puts forward some actions to promote building energy efficiency and conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The palm oil milling process produces excessive amount of palm oil mill effluent (POME). Conventionally, POME is treated anaerobically to remove organic pollutant which produces biogas. Ideally, biogas is recovered to reduce the carbon footprint of palm oil production. However, more often than not the biogas is released freely to the atmosphere as a potent greenhouse gas (GHG). This paper demonstrates the Malaysia’s experiences and endeavors in biogas capture and utilization under the Economic Transformation Programme. It highlights some of the essential technological, financial and institutional elements put in place gearing towards a nationwide biogas implementation. Biogas captured is a proven source of renewable energy that can contribute to the nation’s energy mix and sustainable development. Its implementation has been realized and strengthened in recent years through private commitment and government support in the form of several financial schemes and policies. This initiative across the nation targeting GHG emissions reduction is by and large one of the most responsive long term approaches in continuously improving the environmental performance of the oil palm industry to ensure continued market access to countries imposing more stringent palm oil sustainability requirements. The hardship, pain and valuable lessons learned in this national development could be informative for many other palm oil-producing countries in addressing similar sustainability issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper investigates the impact of foreign labor on domestic manufacturing wages through a case study of Malaysia, a country where foreign labor has played a key role in manufacturing growth over the past two decades. The main focus of the paper is on an econometric analysis of the determinants of inter-industry variation in wage growth using a new panel dataset. The results suggest that wage growth is fundamentally embedded in the structure and performance of domestic manufacturing. There is evidence of a statistically significant negative impact of foreign labor on the growth of unskilled-worker wages, but the magnitude of the impact is rather small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Automobiles are considered as the main energy consumer in the transportation sector. According to the National Energy Balance, its accounted for about 36% of the total energy consumption in Malaysia. In order to reduce energy consumption in this sector, this country must consider setting fuel economy standards for motor vehicles sometime in near future. The first step toward developing fuel economy standards is to create a precise test and rating procedure for the automobiles. The test procedure is the technical foundation for all related programs namely; fuel economy standards, fuel economy labels and incentive programs. The test conditions should represent the driving situations and environment of the country. This paper is attempts to present a critical review on fuel economy testing procedure around the world and to propose a process for selecting a fuel economy test procedure for automobiles based on the conditions and requirements of the country. The internationally recognize test procedure adopted by several countries is also presented in this paper. Even though the paper only discusses the test procedure for automobiles, the methods can be directly applied for other types of vehicles and in other countries without major modifications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper analyzed the potential implementation of hybrid photovoltaic (PV)/wind turbine/diesel system in southern city of Malaysia, Johor Bahru. HOMER (hybrid optimization model for electric renewable) simulation software was used to determine the technical feasibility of the system and to perform the economical analysis of the system. There were seven different system configurations, namely stand-alone diesel system, hybrid PV–diesel system with and without battery storage element, hybrid wind–diesel system with and without battery storage element, PV–wind–diesel system with and without storage element, will be studied and analyzed. The simulations will be focused on the net present costs, cost of energy, excess electricity produced and the reduction of CO2 emission for the given hybrid configurations. At the end of this paper, PV–diesel system with battery storage element, PV–wind–diesel system with battery storage element and the stand-alone diesel system were analyzed based on high price of diesel. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP) is a strategic plan focused on attaining a level of economic growth that will enable the country to attain a developed nation status by 2020. As a result of this ambitious plan, this paper aims to investigate empirically if the nexus between natural gas consumption, exports, capital and labour could provide a clue to the possibilities of reaching this target. The study applied time series data from 1971 to 2012 and used dual structural break tests. To ensure robust result, the Bayer–Hanck cointegration, Johansen cointegration and the ARDL bounds tests were applied. The findings of the study reveal that economic growth does not Granger cause natural gas consumption in Malaysia. However, the results show that capital and export contribute 29.18% and 41.46% to the country׳s GDP after 20.04% and 42.29% of natural gas consumption respectively. Also it suggests that natural gas consumption has an indirect effect to the Malaysian economic growth wherewithal. Labour was on the other hand, found to have a minimal contribution to GDP. The study proposes the efficient exploitation of natural gas reserves of the country, a concerted effort to develop the labour force and ensure a realistic time for the plan among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Palm oil industries have been significantly contributing towards the economic growth and increase standard of living among the South East Asian countries. However, it has also been identified as the major contributor for discharging the largest pollution load in the form of Palm Oil Mills Effluent (POME) throughout these regions. This paper will focus on the successful running of POME zero discharge Pilot plant based on 5 m 3 POME h −1 built at MPOB Experimental Palm Oil Mill, Labu, Malaysia. This piolt study is a cutting edge as no greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere, no discharge of wastewater; low capital investment and low operating cost compared to other existing systems. After a whole year's experiment, the percentage of BOD reading after BioAX treatment below 20 mg/L was 80.76%, and about 30 m 3 biogas was produced per m 3 of raw POME in AnaEG bioreactors, among which, 57% (v/v) was methane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to reinvestigate the relationship between natural gas consumption and economic growth by including foreign direct investment, capital and trade openness in Malaysia for the period of 1971–2012. The structural break unit root test is employed to investigate the stationary properties of the series. We have applied combined cointegration test to examine the relationship between the variables in the long run. For robustness sake, the ARDL bounds testing method is also employed to test for a possible long run relationship in the presence of structural breaks. We note the validity of cointegration between the variables. Natural gas consumption, foreign direct investment, capital formation and trade openness have positive influence on economic growth in Malaysia. The results support the presence of feedback hypothesis between natural gas consumption and economic growth, foreign direct investment and economic growth, and natural gas consumption and foreign direct investment. The policy implications of these results are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In view of Malaysia's status as a fast-growing economy with accelerating carbon dioxide emissions, a better understanding of the relationship between economic growth and pollution is vital to the policy makers. This paper, therefore, attempts to investigate the existence of long run relationship among carbon dioxide emission, institutional quality, exports, and economic growth and further examines the causal relationship among these variables in Malaysia for the period 1984–2008. From the bounds test, it is found that a long run relationship does exist among the variables, even using different conditioning information sets. A positive and significant interaction term between carbon dioxide emission and institutional quality indicator (i.e. law and order) implies that good institutional quality is important in controlling carbon dioxide emission in the process of economic development. The results for Granger causality tests further confirm the importance of institutional frameworks in reducing carbon dioxide emissions since institutional quality is found not only affects economic growth directly, but also indirectly via carbon dioxide emissions. This indicates that sound institutional frameworks are essential for Malaysia to achieve high economic growth without sacrificing its environment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Predicted to be the clean energy of tomorrow, solar energy has been in the forefront of energy development in many developed countries and a potential source of energy to developing countries like Malaysia. This paper presents Malaysia''s solar energy or solar photovoltaic developmental outlook. The study is done by first looking into the country''s energy policies related to solar energy. Key players in the solar energy development such as government institutions are introduced. Early solar energy programmes and a key project called Malaysia Building Integrated Photovoltaic (MBIPV) as well as its successful initiatives will be presented. Measures which have taken by the government of Malaysia including attractive incentives to encourage solar photovoltaic development, the country''s potential in solar energy, foreign investments and future directions as well a feed-in tariff scheme will be presented in length to provide a broad spectrum of solar energy development in Malaysia. The outlook has been positive and the country is active in promoting solar as an alternative energy and is aware of benefits it will bring toward its economic development in the future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper extends the empirical literature of Malaysia''s outward FDI (OFDI) by considering the impact of foreign market size and home international reserves using multivariate cointegration and error-correction modeling techniques. The empirical results reveal that there is a positive long-run relationship between Malaysia''s OFDI and its key determinants, viz. foreign market size, real effective exchange rate, international reserves and trade openness. The main findings suggest that apart from the market-seeking incentive and the adoption of outward-oriented policies, the Malaysian government could also encourage OFDI by implementing liberal policy on capital outflows. On the basis of these findings, we draw some policy implications for the country''s economic development and the internationalization of Malaysian firms in the era of globalization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper employs annual data for Malaysia from 1970 to 2008 to examine the causal relationship between economic growth, electricity generation, exports and prices in a multivariate model. We find that there is unidirectional Granger causality running from economic growth to electricity generation. However, neither the export-led nor handmaiden theories of trade are supported and there is no causal relationship between prices and economic growth. The policy implication of this result is that electricity conservation policies, including efficiency improvement measures and demand management policies, which are designed to reduce the wastage of electricity and curtail generation can be implemented without having an adverse effect on Malaysia’s economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: There is a political will to transform public enterprises in Malaysia, beginning with 15 of the largest and most prominent government-linked companies. Some of these public enterprises are involved in the delivery of housing. Transforming organisations is about change. This paper makes the assertion that the institutional theory and resource-based perspective, in combination, aid in systematically identifying the agents of change of these public enterprises. Having tracked down the agents of change, the transformation plan can then be devised properly. The State Economic Development Corporations (SEDCs) were used to test this proposition. It was found that the main change agents for the SEDCs were the political masters (both at the state and federal government levels) and private developers. The transformation plan for the SEDCs might include separating ownership and management to minimise political interference of their day-to-day operations. In relation to private developers, the transformation plan might give emphasis on serving the housing needs of the well-to-do while not abrogating the social obligation of delivering housing to the poor. To compete against the private developers, the transformation plan might also re-orientate the SEDCs to perform just as efficiently. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Knowledge has been widely recognised as the most important factor of production in a "new economy". The production, dissemination and utilisation of knowledge are therefore essential for development. Some countries, Malaysia among others, have embarked on an ambitious plan to use knowledge as a base for economic development, by-passing earlier stages of industrialisation. Some commentators have, in contrast, asserted "that it is doubtful that the knowledge revolution will let developing countries leapfrog to higher levels of development" as "the knowledge economy will actually expand the gap between rich and poor" (Persaud, 2001:108). The paper discusses this controversy by arguing that the knowledge-gap (k-gap) is in fact a precondition for development. It is, however, no natural phenomenon but it is constructed by experts and governments. Socio-economic indicators are used to show that the existing global knowledge gap is widening between Southeast Asia and the OECD countries and within ASEAN Malaysia, whose government has pursued a vigorous strategy of knowledge development is moving ahead of other ASEAN nations, but falling behind industrialised countries. Factors explaining the situation are outlined in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, Malaysia's attempt to join the 'information society' and 'knowledge economy' by embarking on the ambitious Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) is mapped out and analysed. The discussion is framed in the context of globalization, modernity and the situation in other Muslim societies. Notwithstanding the present national skepticism regarding the MSC, the project has been reasonably well designed and launched. But it is, in the final analysis, only a part of the larger structure of national innovation systems that function equally as 'engines of economic growth.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]