Transportation and energy

Transportation in Malaysia started to develop during British colonial rule, and the country's transport network is now diverse and developed. Malaysia's road network is extensive, covering 98,721 km, including 1,821 km of expressways.[2] The main highway of the country extends over 800 km, reaching the Thai border from Singapore. The network of roads in Peninsular Malaysia is of high quality, whilst the road systems in Sabah and Sarawak are not as well developed.[citation needed] Malaysia also has six international airports.[citation needed] The official airline of Malaysia is Malaysia Airlines, providing international and domestic air service alongside two other carriers. The railway system is state-run, and covers a total of 1849 km.[2] Popular within the cities is Light Rail Transit, which reduces the traffic load on other systems, and is considered safe, comfortable and reliable.

Malaysia currently has approximately 13 gigawatts (GW) of electric generation capacity, of which 84% is thermal and 16% is hydroelectric.[citation needed] In 2000, Malaysia generated around 63 billion kilowatthours of electricity. The Malaysian government expects that investment of $9.7 billion will be required in the electric utility sector through 2010.[citation needed] Much of that amount will be for coal-fired plants, as the Malaysian government is promoting a shift away from the country's heavy reliance on natural gas for electric power generation. In recent developments, Tenaga Nasional Bhd, the main state-owned utility, began in 1999 to divest some of its power generation units. Eventually, Malaysia expects to achieve a fully competitive power market, with generation, transmission, and distribution decoupled, but reform is still at an early stage and the exact process of the transition to a competitive market has not been decided.[clarification needed] The issue is still under study, and many observers have voiced caution in light of the experiences of other deregulated utility systems.

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