Malaysia Country Report

Malaysia, located in South East Asia, comprises Peninsular Malaysia and the states of Sabah and Sarawak along with the Federal Territory of Labuan on the island of Borneo. The total area is 330,803 km and contains a varied topography ranging from coastal areas to mountainous regions. Malaysia is bounded over by a coastline of 4800 km. The climate is tropical with mean daily temperatures of between 26°C to 28°C. Two monsoon periods occur between November-March and May-September. Rainfall is abundant, averaging 2000 mm to 4000 mm annually. Clouds cut off a substantial amount of direct sunshine. Malaysia receives about 6 hours of direct sunlight daily. Total population was 28.3 million in 2010 and increased to 28.6 million in 2011 with increasing population density. About 68.4 percent of the population is within the 15-64 age brackets. The urbanization rate is expected to continue to increase. Life expectancy at birth also showed an upward trend. This improvement can be attributed to the extensive network of health care services in Malaysia, mainly provided by the government. Income per capita increased from RM 26,175 in 2010 to RM 28,725 in 2011. The GDP growth rate for the same period was approximately 5.1 percent. GDP for 2011 was made up as follows: services (57%), manufacturing (27%), agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing (7%), mining and quarrying (6%), and construction (3%). Unemployment decreased to 3.3 percent in 2011 from 3.4 percent in 2010. In Malaysia, the main thrust of energy policies is on the importance of ensuring adequate, secure and reliable supply of energy at affordable costs in addition to 158 promoting efficient utilisation of energy. Efforts to reduce dependency on petroleum products and environmental considerations are major objectives of more recent policies. In this context, renewable energy which is considered more environmentally friendly has been made the Fifth Fuel after oil, gas, coal and hydro.