Malaysia, a superpower?

Reading this headline must have made some of us chuckle. While it may seem like a distant possibility, the Akademi Harimau Asia’s maiden talk series hosted 35 like-minded youngsters who were crazy enough to toy with the idea. The academy, which was launched by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman on April 1, aims to power the Asian Tiger Initiative through education.

Amid the gutter politics that is happening now, a small group of people chose to look away and refocus their attention and energy to the questions that really matter: What is Malaysia’s next growth story? How do we catalyse the economy to provide better quality of life for Malaysians?

For Malaysia to become an Asian Tiger and a prominent global player, it has to contribute something to the world in a big way. Each of the G20 nations has products and services that have huge global demand. What they build or create matters in the international supply chain.

Germany is known to specialise in high-tech heavy machinery. Japan and South Korea own brands like Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Honda, Hyundai and LG that dominate the world consumer demand of electrical and electronic products and motor vehicles.

The United States’ and China’s gargantuan economies are now extending their reach over entire supply chains in various sectors, so much so a mere flex of their trade muscles create huge waves across the world markets.

So, where does Malaysia stand against all the big players? We have to see how much the key industries of Malaysia, namely oil and gas, palm oil and electrical and electronics, are contributing in global production.

While oil exports may contribute to Malaysia’s Gross National Income (GNI), significantly producing around 660,000 barrels per day, it is still nowhere near the production levels of the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (Opec), the US and Russia, which are among the few countries controlling 68% of global output. Our palm oil exports, on the other hand, are now facing embargoes from the European Union.

However, Malaysia managed to gain a competitive advantage in the semiconductor industry, where we are among the top five producing countries, contributing about 10% of the world output.

The dialogue between Kamarulzaman Mohamed Zin, founder of Callidus Semikonduktor and ex-CEO of Silterra Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Wan Ahmad Fayhsal, chief coordinator of Akademi Harimau Asia who specialises in geopolitics, and the 35 youngsters explored the industries and ways which Malaysia can establish itself in the global arena as a key contributor to a high value supply chain.

Kamarulzaman shared his experience on his role in leading Silterra to create a high value supply chain during the Harimau Asia days, and the audience came to understand the economic reasoning behind the Look East Policy and high-tech initiatives like the national car project. These initiatives ultimately aim to provide high-skilled paying jobs to Malaysians, ones that come from industries which the country can potentially have a competitive advantage in.

While it may seem that Malaysia has a long way to go in making its mark in the world, everyone agrees that it is time to focus on the real issue at hand – what do we sell to the world and be the best at it? That is the trillion dollar question.

The Asian Tiger Talk Series by Akademi Harimau Asia will be one of many in the future, that can hopefully bring Malaysians together to focus their hearts and minds on taking Malaysia to a place we can be proud of. Malaysians who wish to be a part of our journey in search for the next Malaysian economic catalyst can visit www.harimau.asia to sign up.

Azeem Abu Bakar is a founding member of Akademi Harimau Asia and an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.