General information. Located in South-East Asia (in the south of Malacca Peninsula and in the northern part of Kalimantan Island). The climate is equatorial, hot and humid.

Territory - 329.8 thousand square km. The capital is Kuala Lumpur (1.8 million people). The administrative center of the country, where government institutions have been moved since 2003, is Putrajaya.

The population is 31.2 million. (2015), of which 65% are Malays and related ethnic groups, 26% are Chinese, 8% are Indians and other people from South Asia, 1% are Europeans, etc. The state language is Malay. The official religion is Sunni Islam, which is practiced by about 60.5% of the population.

National holiday - Independence Day - August 31 (1957).

The state system is a constitutional monarchy. The country consists of thirteen states and three federal territories.

The supreme head (the king) is elected for 5 years from among the nine hereditary rulers (sultans) of the states. From December 13, 2016 - Sultan Muhammad V (Official Form of Addressing: HIS MAJESTY THE YANG DI-PERTUAN AGONG XV SULTAN MUHAMMAD V)

Legislative body - bicameral parliament. The upper chamber is the Senate (elected for - 3 years, chairman - Dato Sri CA. Vignesvaran). The House of Representatives (Speaker - Dato Mohamad Ariff Bin Md Yusuf) is formed for a period of 5 years following the results of the general elections (the last one took place on May 9, 2018).

There are about 40 major political parties. Leading coalition is the Pact of Hope coalition. The main role in it belongs to the largest parties - PKR, DAP, BERSATU and AMANAH.

The main opposition force is the Barisan Nasional coalition, which comprises number of parties, including UMNO.

Executive power is exercised by the Cabinet of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister (since May 2018 - Mahathir Mohamad). The Minister of Foreign Affairs since May 2018 is Saifuddin bin Abdullah.

Malaysia is among the newly developing industrial countries, based on its main economic indicators. GDP per capita is around 10 thousand US dollars.

The largest sector of the economy is the service sector - 55% of GDP. The most dynamically developing manufacturing industry is about 30% of GDP.

Main sector of economy is the production of electronic and electrical products oriented to export. The extractive industry (oil, gas, tin, etc.) accounts for 7% of GDP (21.62 billion US dollars). The share of agriculture - 6% of GDP (more than 50% of world production of palm oil, 3rd place in the world in terms of producing natural rubber) - 18.76 billion US dollars.

Malaysia is one of the world's major manufacturers of integrated systems, air conditioners, radio and television equipments; the only country among the ASEAN countries that has its own automobile industry (three national automobile enterprises - Proton, Perodua, Haikom).

Exports are mainly represented by production goods (67.1%) and extractive industry goods (20.7%). The main items of import are electronic devices (24.8%), minerals, raw materials and oil (16.2%). The main trading partners are China, Singapore, Japan, and USA. The largest investors are Japan and the United States.

Gold and foreign exchange reserves - about 150 billion US dollars. The rate of inflation is no more than 2%, unemployment - 3.16%.

Since 2005, a floating exchange rate of the national currency has been established, which as of September 2018 averages 4.1 Malaysian ringgit for 1 US dollar.