Consultative mechanisms and economic governance in Malaysia

49062 Private Sector Development Department Occasional Paper No. 38 Consultative Mechanisms and Economic Governance in Malaysia Jesse Biddle, Ph.D., International Development Group, Research Foundation of SUNY Vedat Milor, Stanford University Law School September 1999 The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of their institutional affiliation. Do not use for purposes of citation, quotation, or attribute without the permission of authors and the World Bank. The World Bank Private Sector Development Department  Contents I. Introduction................................................................................................ 1 Summary of the Malaysian Case.............................................................................. 3 Consultative Mechanisms and Economic Governance ............................................ 5 Hypotheses on Consultative Mechanism Effectiveness........................................... 8 II. Economic Governance in Malaysia...................................................... 11 Political Context .................................................................................................... 11 Malaysian Development Policy ............................................................................... 13 Institutionalization of Malaysia Inc. ........................................................................ 15 III. Consultative Mechanisms in Practice................................................. 19 Commonalties, Norms and Conventions.................................................................. 19 The Budget Dialogue ..................................................................................... 22 The MITI Dialogue ........................................................................................ 22 The Malaysian Business Council................................................................... 23 Ad Hoc Dialogues