Kuala Lumpur, Penang

CAPITAL CITY OF Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur
LANGUAGE OF Malaysia: English
CURRENCY OF Malaysia: Ringgit (MYR)
COMMENTS ABOUT Malaysia:
Malaysia is a country in South-East Asia, located partly on a peninsula of the Asian mainland and partly on the northern third of the island of Borneo.
Cites : Kuala Lumpur (capital), George Town, Ipoh, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Malacca, Putrajaya, Petaling Jaya
Best Places : Bako National Park, Batang Ai National Park, Gunung Gading National Park, Gunung Mulu National Park, Kinabalu National Park, Kubah National Park, Taman Negara National Park
Electricity : 230V/50Hz (British plug)
Calling Code : +60
Time Zone : UTC+8
During the late 18th and 19th centuries, Great Britain established colonies and protectorates in the area of current Malaysia; these were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. In 1948, the British-ruled territories on the Malay Peninsula formed the Federation of Malaya, which became independent in 1957. Malaysia was formed in 1963 when the former British colonies of Singapore and the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak on the northern coast of Borneo joined the Federation. The first several years of the country's history were marred by Indonesian efforts to control Malaysia, Philippine claims to Sabah, and Singapore's secession from the Federation in 1965.
CLIMATE OF Malaysia: tropical; annual southwest (April to October) and northeast (October to February) monsoons
RELIGION OF Malaysia: Muslim, Buddhist, Daoist, Hindu, Christian, Sikh; note - in addition, Shamanism is practiced in East Malaysia
POPULATION OF Malaysia: 23,522,482 (July 2004 est.)>>
ECONOMY OVERVIEW OF Malaysia: Malaysia, a middle-income country, transformed itself from 1971 through the late 1990s from a producer of raw materials into an emerging multi-sector economy. Growth was almost exclusively driven by exports - particularly of electronics. As a result Malaysia was hard hit by the global economic downturn and the slump in the information technology (IT) sector in 2001 and 2002. GDP in 2001 grew only 0.5% due to an estimated 11% contraction in exports, but a substantial fiscal stimulus package equal to US $1.9 billion mitigated the worst of the recession and the economy rebounded in 2002 with a 4.1% increase. The economy grew 4.9% in 2003, notwithstanding a difficult first half, when external pressures from SARS and the Iraq War led to caution in the business community. Healthy foreign exchange reserves and a relatively small external debt make it unlikely that Malaysia will experience a crisis similar to the one in 1997, but the economy remains vulnerable to a more protracted slowdown in Japan and the US, top export destinations and key sources of foreign investment. The Malaysian ringgit is pegged to the dollar, and the Japanese central bank continues to intervene and prop up the yen against the dollar.