Catching-up with the west in economic development: the case of Malaysia

Using a geometric growth model this paper shows that, given certain assumptions, the target of reaching an annual GNP per capita equal to US $ 10,000 which Vision 2020 considers adequate for acquiring a fully developed nation’s status by that year may remains attainable despite the recent currency turmoil. The real difficulty is that the minimum income level that the World Bank sets to separate the developed (High Income) countries from others is increased by about 4.3% each year. If we incorporate this variation, as we should, in the model, catching up with the West becomes a far cry for most of the developing countries including Malaysia. In fact, being in that race, may cause more harm than good to the socio-economic fabric of these countries.