Living In Malaysia

The system of education in Malaysia is improving all the time; just recently it was announced by the Malaysian government that they were extending the percentage of their annual budget that is committed to educational spending in their country and as a result there are an increasing number of options for local and expatriate parents looking for the best schools for their children.

Aside from the range of state schools available at all levels there are an ever increasing number of international schools available in Malaysia - most of which are centred in Kuala Lumpur.  These offer the private teaching of a range of curricular from around the world with the British, Australian, American, German, French, Indonesian and Japanese curricular all well represented.

Malaysia has had good trade links with many nations including the United Kingdom for years and is now one of the world’s fastest growing trade and economic regions in the world; as a result countless international expatriates now live in Malaysia and do business or work in Kuala Lumpur and the country’s other main employment centres. 

The business environment is definitely western, English is widely used especially in the workplace and both legal and accounting practices derive a great deal from similar British systems meaning that British, American and many European expatriates can quickly feel at home in Malaysia.

Following the 1997 Asian economic crisis which resulted in economic meltdown across the region, the Malaysian economy has improved and in recent years it has strengthened substantially.  Now Malaysia has an economic environment that is conducive to foreign direct investment and more expatriates are living and working in Malaysia in a broad range of industries from oil to IT.

Certain industry sectors are actively targeting foreign professionals and Malaysia offers an economic/real estate program called ‘Malaysia: My Second Home’ in a bid to welcome even greater numbers of expats to live and basically invest in the country.  This is an introduction to moving to live and work in Malaysia for international expatriates.