Gong Xi Fa Chai (Greetings and Prosper)? Can Malaysians Fa Chai?
By Lee Wee Tak
Creating high value jobs is the most second advertised buzzword of Najib administration after 1Malaysia. Has anyone assess if the present administration has done the right things to move us towards that path?
In my humble opinion, the condition for creating high value jobs requires the following 3 basic conditions:
1) attracting the right industry and investors into the country
2) having the right type of human resource in the country
3) having the right commercial infrastructure and living condition for high earning professionals
How do we fare in the above 3 criteria above?
The Original Equipment Manufacturing market is now populated with much more lower cost destinations than 20 years ago and everyone knows the only way up for us is the right direction in the value chain.
We have been dabbling in oil and gas industry for 3 decades and along with financial service industry, these 2 are about the highest paying industry around but we lack a prominent presence in other lucrative business such as information technology (with the failed MSC and Cyberjaya), global logistics (PKFTZ) and high technology manufacturing like pharmaceutical products and robotics.
Come to think of it, our financial service industry lags behind that of Hong Kong and Singapore. We also lack research and development capabilities, tradition and inclination to develop new products, services, ideas and methods to keep up with an increasingly sophisticated and demanding global market. The most renowned creative people in Malaysia seems to be our battalion of Chinese musicians, product of SRJK( C ) who some people love to hate based on unsubstantiated allegations anyway.
We should be working hard on attracting the right kind of investor into Malaysia but I think our Deputy Prime Minister seems to be dismissive of rating reports intended for global investment community (I bet Perkasa is not among the intended recipient of the report).
Read more at: http://wangsamajuformalaysia.blogspot.com/2010/02/gong-xi-fa-chai-greetings-and-prosper.html
