Business

Published: Friday September 25, 2009 MYT 1:43:00 PM

Harvard Business School to study ‘Najibnomics’


KUALA LUMPUR: The Harvard Business School in Boston will undertake a case study highlighting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s initiatives to tackle the financial crisis.

The case study, to be used as a subject in the core curriculum of the macro-economic module, will be a capstone on how a crisis is transmitted internationally.

It will also discuss how a country that has sound fundamentals and good regulations can withstand an international crisis.

Malaysia is known for consolidating the banking, insurance and financial institutions following the 1998 currency crisis, said Harvard Business School Alumni Club of Malaysia in a statement Friday.

Besides highlighting Najib’s economic reforms, the Harvard study would also focus on the various economic liberalisation moves, measures taken to prepare the country for the Asean Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations, said Alumni president Tan Sri G. Gnanalingam.

“Harvard would also bring to attention how the country positions itself on free trade agreements with other countries and how its economic zones are poised for further foreign direct investment attractions.

“We in the alumni are proud to be associated with such a work as the study would become part of the syllabus programme and taught to thousands of international students.

“Moreover, the students at Harvard will hear about what the Government and Bank Negara Malaysia have done since the 1998 crisis to regulate and stabilise the economy,” said Gnanalingam.

The previous case study on Malaysia published in April 2002 entitled Malaysia -- Capital and Control written by Rawi Abdelai and Laura Alfaro, has been one of Harvard’s most successful case studies, he claimed.

It analysed the political economy of capital controls in Malaysia during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. It has been taught in every class for the last seven years not only to Harvard Business School students taking a master’s degree in business administration but also to senior managers who attended executive programmes.

The students constantly praised the case study as it highlighted the views expressed by Malaysian leaders, the statement added. -- Bernama

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