BORNEO REVIEW - VOLUME XIII NO. 1 (JUNE 2002) |
1) THE RELEVANCE OF MONETARY AGGREGATES FOR MONETARY POLICY PURPOSES IN MALAYSIA
3) LOGGING AND PLYWOOD INDUSTRIES UNDER THE SOEHARTO GOVERNMENT
1. THE RELEVANCE OF MONETARY AGGREGATES FOR MONETARY POLICY PURPOSES IN MALAYSIA
Muzafar Shah Habibullah, M. Azali, Chin-Hong Puah
and Ahmad Zubaidi Baharumshah
This paper analyses the long-run neutrality (LRN) of money on real output in Malaysia using a reduced form ARIMA model developed by Fisher and Seater (1993). Empirical results are sensitive to the type of data used. Low frequency data are generally more supportive of the neutrality hypothesis. Also, in contrary to Olekalns (1996) and Leong and McAleer (2000), the outcomes of our LRN tests are robust to the measures of money employed.
Dr. Mohamed Zaini Omar
This paper gives an account of the innovative scheme run by the Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) which had resorted to credit as an entry point towards poverty alleviation in rural Malaysia. It was modelled on the very successful Grameen Bank of Bangladesh with its concept of “micro-credit” for the poor rural households based on group liability. The AIM programme has been very successful in raising the incomes and quality of life and in alleviating poverty among its members. Its success is directly associated with its revolutionary design of a “specially designed delivery system” with the poor in mind. This is in direct contrast with most of the conventional rural development programmes that suffer from goal displacement, where programmes meant for poor end up benefiting the non-poor. AIM’s success, especially by a private trust therefore offers some lessons that can be learned with a view of strengthening the quality of rural development and poverty alleviation efforts in this country. However, AIM’s programme that had made headway in its early years, seems to be losing its direction since the late 1990s. This has been associated with several structural constraints resulting in the suspension of its senior staff. A new management was instituted to pursue the re-establishment of AIM’s original mission of serving the poor.
3. LOGGING AND PLYWOOD INDUSTRIES UNDER THE SOEHARTO GOVERNMENT
Herman Hidayat
Recent estimates indicate a rapid progress in the Indonesian plywood industries during the 1990s. This rapid growth was brought about by two government policies. Firstly, the Soeharto government emphasized a more systematic integration of its political, ideological and economical goals for industrial growth. The forestry industry concentrated on logging and plywood sectors in the early 1980s in order to obtain foreign exchange earnings, after the oil and gas sector. Secondly, the government launched an economic incentive policy, providing export credit, legal assistance and harbour and marketing facilities, especially for private companies intending to build domestic ‘wood-processing’ industries. These policies were conducive to the development of a domestic forestry industry. Development of the industry was aimed largely at creating employment opportunities for Indonesian labourers, increasing foreign exchange earnings and improving the value-added of natural resource-based products.
Ahmad Shuib and Zaaba Zainol Abidin
For a sustainable development of the ecotourism sector, the benefits must be equitably distributed among the private interests, public sector, tourists and local population. Criteria and indicators of sustainable ecotourism development that reflect the costs and benefits must be precise yet simple enough to be understood and easily implemented by field staff. The study uses a Delphi technique to identify and develop a set of priority criteria and indicators which may be used to determine the sustainability of the development of Taman Negara National Park. The results of the study produce a set of 15 criteria and 58 indicators of sustainability which are consistent with the lists adopted by international, regional and national programmes in the development of criteria and indicators. The indicators encompass the components of economic, social and environmental values associated with sustainable development.