leaderships and the collective resolve of the citizens, china had recorded an impressive average annual growth rate of gdp of 9. 5 per cent at the start of its market reforms in 1978 to 1994. thereafter, china has sustained this rapid growth, perhaps, the highest in the world and has been transformed to the second largest economy in the world behind the usa. 8. distinguished ladies and gentlemen, it is instructive to also note that the experience of indonesia offers us a great deal of lessons due to the fact of being a plural society with over bis central bankers ’ speeches 200 languages and ethnic groups and a population of over 250 million. indonesia with a per capita income of about $ 55 in 1965, has recorded a faster growth by year 2000 compared with other major emerging markets. this was made possible by the good leadership that was able to surmount the numerous challenges, and achieved tremendous growth and development such that it now towers over nigeria in all material aspects of development. as a matter of fact, being the largest economy in south - east asia, the government has introduced wide - ranging reforms. these included the pro - poor, pro - growth, pro - employment economic policies coupled with the removal of artificial economic distortions, as well as the promotion of conservative fiscal policies, which resulted in a fiscal deficit of less than 2 per cent, among others. by 2011, indonesia ’ s per capita income had risen to us $ 2, 981, with more than 60. 0 per cent of the population having access to safe water, compared with 39. 0 per cent for nigeria. 9. with a per capita gdp of us $ 299 in 1960, malaysia has successfully transformed from a producer of raw materials to an emerging multi - sector economy. in 2011, the real gdp growth rate stood at 5. 2 per cent, while the population living below the poverty line is less than 4. 0 per cent, with unemployment projected at 3. 1 per cent. electricity production was about 118. 2 billion kw / h while consumption stood at 93. 8 billion kw / h. foreign exchange reserves stood at us $ 129. 6 billion while her total debt stood at about us $ 78. 2 billion. the transformation of the country ’ s economy from mono - primary product exporter to a dynamic and vibrant industrialized nation has been linked to a variety of pull factors namely, political stability, prudent and influx of foreign investors, business - friendly policies, productive workforce, developed infrastructure that is comparable to that

workers are more likely to have underwater mortgages because of particularly large declines in housing prices. a second factor, the one most often cited in support of the structural unemployment hypothesis, is skills mismatch. while it is quite plausible that certain features of the current labor market reflect some skills mismatch contributing to a rise in structural unemployment during the recession, closer examination reveals that they explain less of this increase than might first appear. one such labor market feature is the sharp reduction in employment in sectors related to the housing bubble, such as residential construction and some parts of financial services. the contention is that the skills of workers in these sectors do not readily transfer to other sectors, and thus they will have a particularly difficult time finding new jobs. but in every recession, certain industries and occupations are hit particularly hard, resulting in significant permanent job losses. yet previous recessions do not seem to have been accompanied by notable increases in structural unemployment. thus, those who believe the mismatch problem specifically created by the recession – as distinguished from more - secular trends – is either more prevalent or more persistent now than in the past would need to identify some additional source of rigidity that has further hampered labor market adjustment. some have also pointed to the high level of long - term unemployment as evidence that mismatch is a major factor keeping the unemployment rate high. the claim is that those without the skills sought by employers will take longer, on average, to find new employment. however, the data do not back this claim, at least to date. if high unemployment durations were the result of mismatch, the probability of finding a new job should have declined proportionately more for the long - term unemployed than for the recently unemployed. in fact, reemployment probabilities during the recession fell by similar amounts for all durations of unemployment and have edged up by similar increments in the recovery. again, this pattern is more consistent with weak aggregate demand being the most important cause of high unemployment. another argument for the structural unemployment hypothesis is that the relationship between job vacancies and unemployment has recently changed. generally, job vacancies bear an inverse relationship to the unemployment rate ; that is, when the unemployment rate is low, vacancies are relatively plentiful, and when unemployment is high, vacancies are scarce. the pattern of these changes over time has been plotted on what is commonly referred to as the beveridge curve. a stylized interpretation is that movements