Page 362 - Westport Guide To Malaysia

354 MALAYSIA MEANS BUSINESS
Why Malaysia?
Historical Background
Malaysia has attracted much attention in recent years as a business destination and investment location par excellence, but the roots
of its success reach back more than 1,000 years. Archaeological research has shown that Santubong in Sarawak was a significant trading port as early as
the 9th Century CE, and according to the Brunei Annals, there was a major Chinese trading settlement in the Kinabatangan region of Sabah from the 11th Century onwards, dealing mostly with the export of timber. However, Malaysia made its mark as a regional trading superpower with the founding of Melaka in 1402.
In less than a hundred
years, Melaka rose to become a major trading port, largely due to its open- door policy, its low taxes,
its efficient administration and, most importantly of
all, its strategic location
at the junction of major maritime trading routes. However, Melaka fell to
the Portuguese in 1511 and was subsequently held by the Dutch and the British, whose policies to control trade diminished Melaka's pre-eminence and, not surprisingly, the port fell into a long decline.
Nevertheless, the early success of Melaka lingered in the folk-memory and gave the people of the Malay Peninsula a healthy appetite for trade, as attested by the later success of Singapore and Penang. This appetite for doing
business was reinforced
by the massive migration of Chinese and Indians to Malaya during the Colonial Era, and, driven by the fortunes to be made in mining and commodities, Malaya became the world's leading producer of natural rubber and tin.
With independence,
the government wisely embarked on a policy of economic diversification, to avoid over-dependence on commodities and to provide new employment opportunities for the booming population. From the 1970s onwards, this focused on electrical goods, light engineering, and downstream activities such as furniture and latex products, later moving towards electronics
and high technology
During the Colonial Era, Malaya dominated the world tin trade. Shown here is a typical late 19th Century tin mine in the Kinta Valley near Ipoh, Perak.