Gong Xi Fa Chai (Greetings and Prosper)? Can Malaysians Fa Chai?

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).


PERC report is nonsense, says Muhyiddin

KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has dismissed a report by Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC), which claims that Malaysia is veering to­­wards instability, as “nonsensical



Sigh, the customer is always right, not the "cuss tumour"


Shell is one of the top employers in the world with their business records, tradition, willingness to promote corporate social responsibilities and yet when they choose to place their biggest refinery in Asia, they chose Pulau Bukom, an island off Singapore who has as much petroleum deposits as my condominium unit.


2) having the right local human resource would be 1 of the key reasons for foreign investors to come in. The right human resource can serve both as an effective work force and present a ready and lucrative market for the products and services produced.

At the moment, our English standard and university ranking is getting nowhere, we have laws against freedom of movement, speech and independence of thought by undergraduates, mass production of unemployable graduates who I wonder should be accorded a different and other more suitable status, UiTM undergraduates that seem to be bit sensitive about open competition and national policies that defeats the spirit of competitiveness, meritocracy and innovation.

While we poor millions and billions into human capital development, we seem to fail to retain the existing ones, losing talent, work force, our own consumer market and source of entrepreneurship


304,358 M'sians Migrated To Other Countries From March 2008 Till Aug 2009

(Bernama) - The Dewan Rakyat was today told that 304,358 Malaysians migrated from March 2008 till August this year.

Deputy Foreign Minister Senator A. Kohilan Pillay said the figure for 2007 was 139,696 citizens.“Among the factors for their migration were because of education, brighter career or business prospects as well following their spouses for Malaysians who married foreigners,” he said when replying to a question for Chua Tee Yong (BN-Labis) on the matter.


By and large, the pace of Malaysians is not as quick as Singaporeans let alone Hong Kongers. We are also not as effective and creative in our approach as the Americans and Europeans (A Swede told me that in his nation of 7 million, a guy there using pre-fabrication technology can build a stretch of road in a week when a bunch of Philippinoes would need 6 months to do – can’t verify if what he said was true but he was sober enough)


Do we have the right infrastructure to cater to the needs of high value professionals who work at great speed and relentless pace?



Investors put off by Malaysia’s high-cost, low-speed broadband

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 26 — Consumers in Malaysia pay some of the highest prices for broadband in the region, one major reason being the monopoly which state-owned Telekom Malaysia (TM) holds on submarine cable landing rights, a senior executive at a multinational company has asserted.


The living environment is also important to the high value investors and professionals whom many I believe belong to the category of “work hard, play hard”.

We need to protect them from crime and also traffic jams as their time is too valuable to be wasted in the only free car park in Kuala Lumpur. The productivity of our workforce and their quality of life also suffers as a result of this problem.

The recent social development in Malaysia includes apprehending non-muslim couples for holding hands, barging into the room of an American couple in Langkawi (no apologies or complimentary stay as far as I am ill-informed), church burning (I wonder what the investors of Christian faith think about all this), racist politicking (cow head boys etc) and a wonderfully proactive chamber of commerce chairman.

National Malay chamber sec-gen lodges report against Penang President

Written by Regina William, The Edge

The Malay Chamber of Commerce Malaysia secretary-general Datuk Abdul Rahim Abu Bakar has lodged a police report against Penang Malay Chamber of Commerce (DPMPP) president Rizal Faris Mohideen for allegedly threatening him and attempting to assault him at the Penang International Airport last Wednesday.

Abdul Rahim lodged the report at the Selayang police station on Feb 12.


Do we look as tasty as Hong Kong or Singapore for high value investors, professionals and their (decision making) spouse as a place to stay, work, play and bring up their children?

We have a lot to do and we do not have a lot of time. There are solutions but it has to come from inspired leadership with morale courage and some commonsense, the availability of which do not seem apparent to me

One last word for Dr. Mahathir whom I remember pouring cool water by saying creating high value jobs will push up cost of living.


Higher incomes result in higher cost of living, says Dr M

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 19 — The people must be prepared to pay higher prices for goods and services if they want to enjoy higher incomes under the proposed New Economic Model, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir (picture) said today.

He said that the cost of living would have to go up under a high income economy as the government too would have to increase taxes and reduce subsidies.

“Without the cost of living going up, you cannot have higher income,” he told reporters when asked to comment on the New Economic Model.


Of course it does but Malaysia has sufficient land mass to have high earning high stress urban zones and other areas that hosts our agriculture sector and provide a less hectic and expensive living condition. Let's enable Malaysians to have a choice!

Anyway, the good Dr. did create a few high value positions occupied by Halim Saad, Tajuddin Ramli and a few people who knew each other well. The difference I would say, in the era of 2010s is that the creation process must be via level playing field, test of true capability of individuals and there has to be an aspect called the relative distribution of opportunities perhaps not fully considered by the good Dr.

Gong Xi Fa Chai (Greetings and Prosper)? Can Malaysians Fa Chai?