The Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia vice-chancellor pointed out that equally important were a country’s capabilities as well as its focus on industries that demanded higher levels of sophistication.
Illustrating his point, he cited how in 1990, South Korea had successfully moved from being a nation that primarily manufactured garments to one with more sophisticated industries and how by 2010, it focussed on manufacturing machinery.
By contrast, Malaysia had not only failed in focussing on more sophisticated industries, he said, but remained in “lower industries” such as providing cheap labour and manufacturing garments.
He said that the more capabilities a country had in highly sophisticated industries, the more likely it could transform for the better.
“Countries evolve over time and that evolution is predictable. That prediction is based on what the country is currently doing,” he said at a forum on Malaysia’s Growth Sustainability and Economic Transformation at Sunway University here today.
He said that in order for Malaysia to take the leap into highly sophisticated industries, the country had to stop thinking of product growth as a linear process.
“If you’re good at cutting, it does not mean you cut wood and turn that wood into furniture. A lot of other things need cutting, such as diamonds.”
He said that Switzerland was very good at producing chocolates and manufacturing watches as well as making a name for itself in banking, none of which were related goods but all of which required precision.
In his recent Budget 2017 speech, Prime Minister Najib Razak revealed the National Transformation 2050 (TN50), a plan that has come under fire from certain quarters who claimed the government was attempting to cover up their failure in achieving Vision 2020.
Noor Azlan, however, said that the country’s economy was far from being a failure.
“Since 1990 we have experienced an average GDP growth of six per cent per year. Yet, we haven’t achieved transformation.
“I believe that we have to look at more than just (GDP) growth.”