IF Malaysia wants to roar again as an “Asian Tiger”, the country would need enhanced technology, a strong workforce and critical technical skills.

Market observers said Malaysia must strengthen its technological capacity, increasing the wages of skilled workers and emphasising technical-oriented skills if it wished to regain the “Asian Tiger” label.

Malaysia needed to adapt upon technologies, such as artificial intelligence, renewable energy and the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) which had propelled other Asian countries, such as Singapore and South Korea to greater heights, said Sunway University Business School Professor of Economics Dr Yeah Kim Leng.

Higher wages for skilled worker will benefit the economy in the long run, resulting in higher purchasing power, especially among the middle-income group.

“We need to upskill our workers, enhance our research and development, as well as reduce our dependence on unskilled foreign workers. By reducing our reliance on foreign manpower and implement technology, we could offer higher wages for the semi-skilled local workforce,” he said.

The nation also needed to capitalise on the young workforce, who possessed technological capabilities, to compete with other developed nations, he said.

“If we do not capitalise on this window of opportunity, we would be stuck as in 10 to 15 years from now, Malaysia will turn into an aging nation,” he said.   

On top of that, Yeah said sectors, such as renewable energy, green technology, artificial intelligence, as well as Industry 4.0 must be emphasised in order to move at a faster pace.

“If not, we will continue to lag behind,” he said.

Yeah said Malaysia was once a strong economy but had fallen out to countries like South Korea and Singapore by not keeping pace in technology adaptation, causing it to lag behind in the value chain.

“We had brain drain in certain sectors due to the non-conducive environment, and we had relied on the commodities such as palm oil and oil and gas to boost our economy.

“This had caused us to fail in attracting advance foreign direct investment that focused on technological advancement.”

Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd Head of Research Pong Teng Siew said the work ethics among the Malaysian workforce needed to be improved for the country to compete on the global stage. 

“While upgrading our technical skills, we also need to brush up our work ethics. I can tell you that I am impressed with how fast they (China) move to get things done. We need that kind of culture, which is one of the defining characteristics of manufacturing in China. They can move very fast and they are willing to work practically overnight to get things done. I am not sure that people are willing to do that here,” he said. 

He added that education reform might be useful to amplify the technical skills of the workforce.

“We need more technical-oriented skills, not necessarily academic, I have to emphasise that point,” said Pong. 

He added that Malaysia would be able to record a faster economic growth of 6% to regain its Asian Tiger status, stating that the government would need to sort out near-term issues, such as national debt and the US-China trade conflicts. 

“The Tiger economies do not grow at 8%-9% growth pace any more. To be frank anything like 6% is already very good to qualify as the Tiger economy.

“A rapidly growing economy (now) is different from that of 1990s. We do not see many countries growing at more than 6% any more, 7% is extraordinary.”

Malaysia will likely benefit the spill-over from the US-China trade conflicts as China-based manufacturers will look for new markets. – Bernama, October 3, 2018.