Md. Wahid Murad

Identifying economically potential inbound markets for Malaysian tourism industry

The key objective of this study is to determine and analyze the impacts of inbound tourism on the Malaysian economy using an input-output analysis. With the view of accomplishing the key objective, this study also explores the economic potential of inbound markets for the Malaysian tourism industry. As central to any economic impact analysis, tourism multipliers are estimated from the inverse of Leontief’s input-output matrix. The empirical results reveal two interesting observations concerning inbound tourism impacts on Malaysian economy. These are, firstly, tourism sectors that produce larger multipliers do not generate larger total economic impact, and secondly, inbound markets with highest per capita do not yield highest economic impact. Therefore, this study concludes that an economic sector with lower multipliers should not be neglected and that the contribution of inbound tourism market generating lower per capita expenditure should not be ignored when preparing appropriate tourism marketing and public policies for developing economies.

Does poverty cause environmental degradation? Evidence from waste management practices of the squatter and low‐cost flat housholds in Kuala Lumpur

This study examines whether or not the waste management practices of the poor households living in squatters and low‐cost flats in Kuala Lumpur are conducive to the environment. With the aim of accomplishing the above, the study empirically assesses knowledge, attitude and behaviour of the urban poor concerning their household solid waste management. With primary data collected from the level of living condition and waste management practices of the urban poor, the study employed a multiplicity of statistical techniques such as t‐tests of equality of means, one‐way analysis of variance, chi‐square ‘likelihood ratio’ tests, and descriptive statistics. The findings of the study provide evidence to the effect that poverty does not cause environmental degradation as the knowledge, attitude, and behaviour of the urban poor concerning solid waste management are found to have been conducive to the environment. The study suggests that the problems of poverty and environment need to be seen differently as the causal relationship between the two does actually depend on the level of socioeconomic profile and the type of environmental practices of a particular group of community

Emergence to Develop an Appraisal System for Agricultural Practices in Malaysia

Abstract This study is an effort to justify an emergence to develop an appraisal system for agricultural practices in Malaysia. The idea has come from the fact that although the policies for promoting Malaysia’s agriculture sector towards sustainability were endorsed in 1998, but some agricultural practices in the country are found to be connected with environmental problems. Advanced quantitative analytical tools such as stationary tests and least squares estimations have been employed to attain the study objective and justify our arguments. The results, however, reveal that agricultural practices in Malaysia have been connected, to some extent, with environmental problems in the country. An increase in fertilizer consumption has been found to be positively connected with both agricultural production index and food production index for the country. The study also found that the contribution of Malaysian agriculture in terms of its value added to the national economy is certainly creditable, but this could have been connected with environmental problems on a greater scale. The results further reveal that an increase in the area of arable and permanent crops has also been associated with higher agricultural production index and food production index for the country. While most agricultural practices in Malaysia are observed to have been generally compatible with the standards of sustainable agriculture, an emergence still arises for the country to develop an appraisal system for monitoring its current agricultural practices. It is expected that the development of such an appraisal system will enable Malaysia to transform its agriculture into sustainable in which agricultural resources will not be exploited and environmental degradation will be absent.

A Paradox of the World Population Stabilization Policy

Population explosion of the last century necessitated adoption of a population stabilization policy internationally but without due consideration of its paradoxical impacts on future world economic and environmental sustainability and progress of civilization. Population stabilization policy makes world fertility level (projected) to fall below the replacement level by 2043. This will result in a declining work-age population endangering economic and environmental sustainability particularly during 2050 and beyond. This study has made an attempt to highlight this paradox of population stabilization policy in terms of its impacts on economic and environmental sustainability. It analyses the catch of the need for a declining population in order to maintain a stable population. It also analyses the time taking process of changing fertility habit of the human community under the concepts of ‘child bearing habitual gap’ and ‘work-age formation gap’. It argues that for a progressive and sustainable world economy a greater and rising work-age population is required and observes that world needs to maintain population growth at a rate balanced in terms of countries and earth’s absorption capacity.

Factors Correlated with Visitors’ Interest in the Best International Show: Evidence from Hong Kong Arts Festivals

The key objective of this empirical study is to determine and analyze the demographic, attitudinal and behavioral factors that could significantly correlate with international visitors’ interest in the Best International Show, which had taken place at the Hong Kong Arts Festivals. A total of 129 samples were drawn randomly from both the male and female international visitors, who participated in that international arts and festival show in Hong Kong. The study used paired samples t-test and descriptive statistics as analytical techniques to achieve the key objective. The estimated correlation coefficients obtained through t-test and the corresponding levels of significance reveal that Latvian National Opera: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Northern Sinfonia and Chorus are the two most attractive show performances, which have been positively as well as significantly (P≤0.05) correlated with international visitors’ interest in the Best International Show. Interestingly, as confirmed by the paired samples t-test, no demographic factors of the international visitors were found to be correlated with their interest in the Best International Show. Thus, policies and strategies, which will promote and improve the quality of the above two show performances, are to be taken in order to attract more international visitors to the Best International Show. While the main limitation of this study lies in the use of a small sub-set of samples, future research could overcome this by interviewing a large number of international visitors.

The Performance of Islamic Banks During the 2008 Global Financial Crisis: Evidence from Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

The purpose of this study is to analyse the performance of Islamic banks in terms of profitability of GCC region during 2008 global financial crisis. Bank specific data are taken from the Bank Scope database and macroeconomic data are collected from International Financial Statistics. Using a panel data series of 30 banks for the period of 2005 to 2011, the study shows the availability of structural break for the crisis year as well as the factors that impact the profitability of Islamic banks. The performance of GCC Islamic banks was significantly influenced during the crisis period by capital adequacy, credit risk, financial risk, operational efficiency, liquidity, bank size, gross domestic product, growth rate of money supply, bank sector development and inflation rate. The study also found that there was structural change before and after the global financial crisis. The study concludes that the Sharia compliant banks performed better during the crisis and were not affected based on their internal performance records; rather, they were affected indirectly from the macro shock due to the economic crisis.

Malaysia: Environmental Health Issues

Environmental health problems experienced by Malaysia originate mainly from atmospheric pollution, water pollution, climate change, ozone depletion, solid waste management as well as toxic, chemical, and hazardous waste management. With respect to atmospheric pollution, the country faces the problems of urban air pollution due mainly to emissions from the industrial, power generation, and transportation sectors as well as trans-boundary haze pollution. Water resources are increasingly under threat due to water pollution and rising demand, whereas changes in weather patterns, increases in extreme weather, and natural disasters as well as changes in seasons which are attributed to climate change. Future changes in climate are expected to cause rising sea levels, loss of agricultural production, and variations in freshwater availability, among others. Various measures are being taken to address these challenges. The Ministry of Health of Malaysia is actively pursuing the environmental health agenda in Malaysia. The capacity of all state and district health officers on environmental health is being strengthened. The cooperation with other agencies at district, state, and national levels, to resolve social, economic, and environmental issues, is also being enhanced for this purpose.

Understanding the influences of 'world culture course' on students' attitude and perception: An empirical study

ABSTRACT:Today’s world cannot circumvent the strong and dominant effects of cultural globalization. This study examines how does an undergraduate course on global culture being offered at the Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) influence the attitudes and perceptions of students who are undertaking that course virtually along with their counterparts in Namibia and the USA. Global culture course provides a unique platform for students to learn the international culture without traveling. UMT in collaboration with two other participating universities namely East Carolina University, USA, and University of Namibia offers this course where the students communicate with each other using videoconferencing and interactive chat technology. Participating universities operate the course in such a manner that students can discuss various topic ranging from personal life, family and social traditions, cultural norms and etiquettes during the semester. They also share the meaning of life and religion to stereotypes and prejudices. Data for this study were collected through a structured questionnaire given to 12 students at UMT who undertook this course in the preceding academic semester. This study precisely assesses and explores their learning and perception of the course, and discusses the implications of empirical results at local, national, and international levels. Upon collecting data using a random sampling technique, descriptive statistics such as frequency, mean, and standard deviation have been calculated for all 22 variables in the original questionnaire. The one sample t-test has then been employed for all those variables to see whether there is any significant difference between the actual and observed responses provided by the students concerning their learning and perception toward the course. The empirical outcomes show that world culture course creates students’ real sentience and helps them understand and tolerate cultural diversity. Particularly, Malaysian students have demonstrated a strong connection to and respect towards their own culture and traditions. Their demonstrated attitudes and perceptions were found to have matched well with the characteristics of a collective society where there is usually less freedom. However, these were found to be considerably opposite to the United States culture in which individualism is widespread. We, however, suggest that universities around the world should adopt such education approach to making students aware of global cultures. Since culture is widely perceived as shared values, ideas, and principles and it is influenced mostly by the social, political and religious dimensions, an in-depth understanding of the world culture and its influences requires a multidimensional approach, which is beyond the scope of this study.

Malaysia's Proactive Economic Zone Regime as a Model to Emulate for Success of Bangladesh Economic Zone Scheme

Economic zone or export processing zone in a country is a purpose-built industrial park with infrastructure designed to suit the needs of foreign as well as local investors. In order to tempt foreign investors into the zones the host developing countries offer a variety of incentives. By encouraging and motivating the multinational companies to settle their Greenfield investments in developing countries, the economic zone scheme acts as a tool for empowering the local economy to gain multiple capabilities and go global increasingly to facilitate income convergence between the industrialized and the developing countries through equitable sharing of the gains from trade. Nonetheless, it is not a magic wand. Its experiences in Malaysia and Bangladesh clearly show that it can create wonder only when it is appropriately designed and managed. It is suggested that Bangladesh borrows a leaf from the rich experiences of Malaysia’s economic zone model, to restructure and revitalize her economic zone scheme for greater success.

Carbonomics of the Bangladesh agricultural output: causality and long‐run equilibrium

Purpose – The key purpose of this paper is to examine the causality and long‐run relationship between CO2 emission and agricultural output for an agriculture‐dependent developing country, namely Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approach – In order to attain the objective, this study has used long‐time series data and employed advanced econometric techniques of unit root test, nonlinear least square estimation, Vector Error Correction estimation and Granger causality test.Findings – The empirical results of the study reveal that Bangladesh agricultural output is not a Granger causal for Bangladesh CO2 emission, but the countrys CO2 emission is a Granger causal for its agricultural output. The results also reveal for Bangladesh that any disequilibrium between CO2 emissions and agricultural output could take approximately 17 years to converge to the long‐run equilibrium. The results further reveal that the adjustment rate for Bangladesh agricultural output is positive and quite fast at the rate of 69 percent a...