"Najib needs to bring in foreign investment to move Malaysia from a middle-income country that is dependent on commodities and electronics exports to a more robust economy," said Ms. Welsh, of Singapore Management University.
"Electronics are commodity items and there aren't enough of them on eBay," he said.
He goes to Fry's to get the latest consumer electronics, orders commodity products like camera batteries from Amazon, and recently bought a tablet from Costco after realizing it had a lower price than Best Buy.
And he was also early to recognize that personal computers would become a commodity business like consumer electronics, and focused his company's efforts on squeezing costs out of the manufacturing process and passing the savings along to buyers.
Japan's Nikkei 225 edged up by 24.54 points, or 0.3%, to 8,438.45, on the strength of across-the-board gains in financials, commodity producers, automakers and electronics firms.
Malaysia has suffered from a greater-than-expected drop in demand for its electronics and commodities, which also looks to put a dent in consumer spending.
Then the Apple TV, Boxee, and Roku started making media streaming boxes into commodities thanks to smaller electronics and a race to the bottom.
Profile With a well-developed infrastructure, a free-enterprise economy, generally pro-investment policies, and strong export industries, Thailand achieved steady growth due largely to industrial and agriculture exports - mostly electronics, agricultural commodities, automobiles and parts, and processed foods.
Those are the conclusions of the most comprehensive analysis to date of global water use, which also finds that one-fifth of humankind's water consumption flows across international borders as "virtual water"—the water needed to produce a commodity, such as meat or electronics, if the ultimate consumers were to make it themselves rather than outsource its growth or manufacture.
