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This chapter discusses Malaysia's foreign economic policy and trade performance. Since independence, Malaysia has been active in regulating its foreign economic policy. The policy is aimed at making the country a nation that welcomes friendly and fair policy through diplomacy and simultaneously maintaining its honorable sovereignty and local interests. In 2018, the Malaysian government outlined its foreign policy framework that emphasises four (4) major components, namely, (1) the direction of foreign policy, (2) empowering the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – MOFA (Wisma Putra), (3) enhancing interagency collaboration and lastly, (4) increasing public and civil society participation. Through the framework, Malaysia has been strengthening its international relations, particularly among Islamic nations and the European Union countries. In terms of trade, Malaysia has been increasing its trade and this can be seen in its trade surplus performance. For more than 20 consecutive years, Malaysia has experienced trade surpluses. However, the recent COVID-19 outbreak has dampened the country's economic growth. Despite the detrimental impacts of the outbreak, Malaysia remained positive about strengthening the economy in the future. In terms of trade partners, Malaysia has built close relations with China, Singapore, the United States, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, India, Taiwan, Vietnam, and South Korea. In terms of export products, Malaysia mainly exports electrical and electronic products, petroleum products, chemicals and chemical products, LNG, manufactures of metal, machinery, equipment and parts, optical and scientific equipment, palm oil, crude petroleum, and rubber products. Even though trade has caused several issues such as overdependence on import product, Malaysia has maintained a positive outlook on trade. Trade helps fulfill the domestic demand in which local producers are not able to satisfy. Other than that, Malaysia also consistently produced goods that are demanded by other countries. In conclusion, Malaysia will always forge ahead to improve its international economic relations and to gain benefits from the international economy and world trade.

This study aims to explore the current Green practices implemented in Malaysia higher education institutions toward sustainability attainment by developing a multi-disciplinary comprehensive policy framework to further extend the collaboration among sustainability practitioners in providing integrated data on Green indicators linked to economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability in higher education institutions.

Primary data which comprises of sustainability archival documents from sixteen universities in Malaysia was used to explore the extent of Green practice for sustainability. In addition, this study also used secondary data from existing literature on sustainable development in Malaysia higher education institutional context.

Findings from the examined 16 universities and prior sustainability studies in Malaysia universities suggest that higher education institutions in Malaysia are presently implementing Green practices in their university campuses toward attaining sustainability.

Qualitative data is only collected from higher education institutions in Malaysia. Hence, findings from this study cannot be generalized to universities in other countries.

This study provides insights toward infusing Green campus paradigms from a technological perspective to facilitate the exchange of information between sustainability practitioners to produce innovative solutions for addressing sustainability challenges.

This research developed a policy framework that provides trans-disciplinary approach to be adopted by higher education institutions in Malaysia and further beyond toward attaining sustainability. Socially, this study provides Green indicators that act as a reference manual and road map toward sustainable development in higher education institutions.

A novel multi-disciplinary comprehensive policy framework is developed grounded on identified Green indicators integrated to provide information on how sustainability practitioners can implement Green practices paradigms across universities. Furthermore, the Green indicators can be used as metrics to provide data for Green practice measurement and monitoring in higher education institutions.