Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : WESTIN HOTEL, SANTA CLARA,
CALIFORNIA
Tarikh/Date : 17/01/97
Tajuk/Title : THE MEETING WITH SILICON VALLEY
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF
HIGH TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES
1. I would like to thank Dr. Leonard Liu for
organising this conference for us to share our plans for
developing the Multimedia Super Corridor, or MSC as we
call it. This week, we have enjoyed an overwhelmingly
positive response from the entertainment companies in
Southern California and the high technology companies we
saw at Stanford. I also received some excellent
suggestions yesterday from my International Advisory
Panel. Bill Gates, Idei-san from Sony, Scott McNealy
from Sun, Larry Ellison from Oracle, and several other
distinguished multimedia leaders spent the day with me
brainstorming on the MSC.
2. It has become clear to me that, as we all approach
the 21st century, fantastic changes are taking place
which make what was impossible in the old economy of the
Industrial Age suddenly possible in the new world of the
Information Age. For practical purposes, borders have
already disappeared because knowledge, capital, company
activities, and consumer preferences ignore lines on a
map. Where countries once competed with one nation's
trade surplus resulting in another's trade deficit, in
the future both countries can benefit because networks
of companies collaborate across borders to deliver value
to customers in the most economically sensible ways.
3. The Information Age has created conditions for the
first time in history that will enable countries and
companies to mutually enrich one another - it is no
longer a zero sum game with winners and losers. Trade
surpluses and deficits measuring the movement of
physical goods are increasingly irrelevant because they
don't measure flows of information or services. There
is a tremendous opportunity for those companies and
countries with the courage to embrace these changes.
For a limited time, there is a relatively level playing
field where developed and developing countries can work
together in ways that create benefits for both. This is
because many of the wealthier developed countries are
locked into obsolete industrial structures and
legislative frameworks. Vested interests in these
systems stubbornly oppose any change. Fortunately,
these corporate interests have not had time to develop
and become powerful in developing countries like
Malaysia.
4. In Malaysia, we are creating the Multimedia Super
Corridor to harness these new forces. We hope this will
accelerate our economic development and create exciting
opportunities that our international partners cannot
pursue elsewhere. The MSC is truly a world-first - the
careful creation of a region with the infrastructure,
laws, policies, and practices that will enable companies
to explore the Information Age without any of the usual
constraints that frustrate them. The MSC is a 15 km
wide by 50 km long corridor that runs from the world's
tallest building, the Kuala Lumpur City Centre, down to
what will be the region's largest airport when it opens
in 1998.
5. The MSC will have the best physical infrastructure
that can be offered in the world. In addition to the
Kuala Lumpur City Centre, there will be a new airport,
rapid train links to KL, a Smart-Highway, and two new
intelligent garden cities. The first garden city is
Putrajaya -- our new administrative capital -- where
most of government will be relocating beginning with the
Prime Minister's office in 1998. The neighbouring
garden city is Cyberjaya, an area designed to provide
the physical and psychological spaces needed for
contemplation, creativity and relaxation. It will be
built around a new Multimedia University. The first
phase of Cyberjaya will be open in 1999. Cyberjaya will
provide top quality intelligent buildings, multimedia
enterprise estates, residential housing, leisure and
recreation facilities, and state of the art supporting
infrastructure.
6. Second, the MSC will have the world's best soft
infrastructure of supporting laws, policies, and
practices. This includes a comprehensive framework of
societal and commerce-enabling cyberlaws on intellectual
property, digital signature, computer crime, distance
learning, telemedicine, and electronic government. The
set of cyberlaws will be enacted by Parliament over the
next few months. In addition, we are developing a
Multimedia Convergence Act that will update our
telecommunications, broadcasting, and information laws
to reflect today's rapid technological convergence. We
hope to enact this new law before the end of 1997.
Finally, we know how critical skilled knowledge workers
are and have a series of educational and training
initiatives across the country. All schools will be
connected to the Internet by 2000 and the Multimedia
University is planned to operate in partnership with MSC
companies to ensure its graduates meet their skill
requirements.
7. Third, the MSC will leapfrog available information
infrastructure with a 2.5-10 gigabit Open Multimedia
Network. This will use the latest ATM switches to
provide Fiber to the Building. This network will have a
5 gigabit international gateway with direct links to
Japan, North America, Europe, and other ASEAN countries.
This will be operational by 1998.
8. Fourth, a fully empowered one-stop called the
Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC) has been
created to manage and market the MSC. The mission of
the MDC is to create the best environment for private
sector companies to pursue multimedia activities. The
MDC will be opening ten offices around the world over
the next two years so it can be close to the companies
who will be its clients. One of these will be here
in Silicon
Valley. The Deputy Prime Minister and I will personally
oversee the activities of the MDC and will resolve
issues brought to our attention.
9. The MSC is a pilot project for harmonising Malaysia
with the global forces shaping the Information Age.
Phase 1 involves making the MSC a success by learning
from our partners and the experience we gain; Phase 2
will link in other islands of excellence within Malaysia
and around the world; and Phase 3 involves making all of
Malaysia a Multimedia Super Corridor. I expect we will
be in the final phase by 2020 as we become a developed
nation.
10. No other country is even considering anything
similar. We are not adapting a new concept to an
existing area; we are building and installing the latest
on a huge 15 km x 50 km greenfield site designed to
realise the full potential of multimedia. We do not see
multimedia merely as a new type of information
technology, but rather we see it as tool to both create
a knowledge-based society and harvest its potential
economic, social, and cultural rewards.
11. You may be thinking, this is all very interesting
but `Why Malaysia'?
12. First, we have language skills and cultural
knowledge that can be very helpful. Most Malaysians
speak English as well as one or more languages such as
different Chinese or Indian dialect, or Malay. With the
new airport and communications infrastructure being
built, Malaysia's central location in Asia enable it to
be a highly efficient and effective hub for the region.
Second, Malaysia still has a cost advantage as compared
to the `tigers' in the region. Third, the newness of
multimedia to Malaysia provides an important advantage -
we have no inherited systems or entrenched interests
determined to defend their current positions. We
have the political will and the
power to rapidly change existing laws or policies that
are obstacles to achieving the aspirations of multimedia
companies.
13. Finally, we are highly committed to making the MSC
a success and we have a track record of meeting our
commitments. The Malaysian government sees multimedia
as the strategic sector to achieve our Vision 2020, the
attainment of developed country status through
productivity-led growth, and the MSC is at the leading
edge of this key sector. Consequently, we simply cannot
and will not allow the MSC to fail.
14. To address the needs of leading multimedia
companies, Malaysia is offering a ten point Multimedia
Bill of Guarantees. The Government of Malaysia formally
commits the following to all companies receiving MSC
Status from the Multimedia Development Corporation:
a) Malaysia will provide a world-class physical and
information infrastructure;
b) Malaysia will allow unrestricted employment of
knowledge workers from overseas;
c) Malaysia will ensure freedom of ownership of
companies;
d) Malaysia will allow freedom of sourcing capital
globally of MSC infrastructure and freedom of
borrowing funds;
e) Malaysia will provide competitive financial
incentives including no income tax or an investment
Tax Allowance for up to ten years, and no duties
on the import of multimedia equipment;
f) The MSC will become a regional leader in
intellectual property protection and cyberlaws;
g) Malaysia will ensure no censorship of the Internet;
h) The MSC will offer globally competitive telecom
tariffs;
i) Malaysia will tender key MSC infrastructure
contracts to leading companies willing to use the
MSC as their regional hub; and
j) Malaysia will provide a high powered implementation
agency to act as an effective `one-stop shop' to
ensure the MSC meets company needs.
15. This Bill of Guarantees was developed by talking to
hundreds of leading companies around the world. We are
targeting seven specific `flagship applications' to be
pursued in this special environment. These include
electronic government; smart schools and distance
learning; telemedicine; a single multipurpose card with
citizen ID, government, and financial applications;
borderless marketing and customer care; and worldwide
manufacturing webs. I hope you will consider
participating in one or more of these by locating in
Cyberjaya.
16. We realise we have much to learn from Silicon
Valley which is more advanced than Malaysia. But
precisely because you are so developed, there are very
important things we can do that you cannot. The role of
government will be to remove the obstacles created by
policies that were successful in the Industrial Age but
must be changed to unleash the full potential of the
Information Age. We offer the Multimedia Super Corridor
as a gift to the world to help all of us successfully
meet the challenges of the 21st Century. None of us can
continue to succeed in this increasingly borderless
world by ourselves, and we invite those of you who share
our vision to be our partners in exploring these
exciting new frontiers.
17. Thank you very much for listening. I look forward
to hearing your reactions and suggestions.
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