The 450 metre high Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur form the tallest building in the world. Not only do they offer a view over the throbbing capital city of Malaysia, but they are also a symbol of the country's economic ambitiousness and its will to beat its own, Asian path to development.
Situated on the Strait of Malacca, which connects the Indian and Pacific oceans, the focus of the country and its population has for centuries centred on merchant shipping.  During British rule tin ore mining and the production of rubber laid the foundations for Malaysia's later economic development.
The formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963 was initially accompanied by political strife and tension both at home and abroad. In the early 1970s, the new ethnic-Malay-oriented economic policy was launched, leading to a rate of economic growth in Malaysia, which even by comparative standards in a booming Asia were unusually high. This economic policy was superseded by the "new economic growth programme" in 1991. Malaysia intends to be on a par with developed industrial nations by the year 2020. However, within the Federation there is a considerable discrepancy in income between the west, the Malay peninsula with the capital city and the sparsely populated east, which borders on Indonesia and has a wealth of raw materials.
Malay, Chinese and Indians are the predominant ethnical groups constituting the Malaysian population today. Despite the diversity of cultures, languages and religions, the national language, Bahasa Malaysia, and also Islam exert a major influence on the national identity of this young state. The head of state of the parliamentary democracy is a king, who is elected every five years from the ruling families of the nine sultanates.