4. Malaysia: changing economic environments

Following from previous postings, it can be argued that one of the main reasons affecting our economic competitiveness and its benefits for ordinary Malaysians is the weakness of our strategic planning. With changing economic conditions and competitive arenas, it is futile to execute and implement economic plans and objectives yesteryear. At present, what appeared to be driving our economy forward is a mixture of adhoc and offensive economic strategies such as those mentioned in article (2). In light of our current economic growth in terms of GDP, one might argue that there is no cause for concern and our economy is progressing upwards and onwards on the right trajectory. My main concerns are our future competitiveness, lessons drawn from the past and tangible benefits to our people. In particular, the large majority of our population is not reaping the rewards of our economic growth or what seemed to be exclusive wealth endowed by small quarters - these are issues to be addressed urgently. Furthermore, examples of poor strategic planning are abound: Proton, MAS, MSC project, KLIA, etc. These companies and/or projects are facing a grim economic outlook mainly due to changing economic conditions, poor marketing and management incompetence. Major economic projects were once funded through strong economic growth and FDI but with markets becoming ever more competitive, companies seemed to be in status quo. There is also the attitude problem of living in denial and Malaysians like to profess the saying that 'we can' or 'Malaysia boleh.' In reality, our government and economy are facing tough times and ordinary people are facing the brunt. We could have avoided some of the challenging economic times by being more alert to global networks of interdependent economies and markets. For instance, we are strategically located in the Far East to help European markets to tap into the region's markets especially China's. Moreover, we could have had the vision that knowledge and technology transfer, and skills upgrade be our economic priority during the years when foreign investments were booming such as from Japanese and European manufacturing firms. The irony is that although the government learned from earlier mistakes, we are still knocking on the same window of opportunity when it had shut on us - and is gone forever. There is no vision in our economic direction and strategy. Vision is not an innate ability but it is someone who has a broad multicultural perspectives, an understanding of major global strategic drivers, a strategist and negotiator, a profound knowledge of management, and an analytic mind. The PM of Malaysia needs to assemble his cabinet ministers with such people or surrounds himself with independent experts rather than some bureaucrats or think tanks that at worst may have ulterior motives or slow and inflexible in responding to urgent execution of time critical strategies.