His spending program, known locally as the Economic Transformation Plan, is a bid to drag Malaysia out of the so-called middle-income trap, which forces many emerging economies to compete with each other in producing cheap exports instead of developing more-sophisticated, value-added products.

WSJ: Malaysia's Leader Urges Unity After Tense Vote

The gap between rich and poor has risen in other emerging economies (notably China and India) as well as in many rich countries (especially America, but also in places with a reputation for being more egalitarian, such as Germany).

ECONOMIST: What to do (and not do) about inequality

These lessons are outlined in the Strong Cities, Strong Communities Annual Report, which describes the impact of the SC2 Initiative and identifies emerging innovations that have the potential to be applied to many other communities working to strengthen their economies and job creation at the local level.

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