Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : FUKUOKA, JAPAN
Tarikh/Date : 28/03/97
Tajuk/Title : THE FUKUOKA DIALOGUE, THE DIGITAL
CENTURY: OPPORTUNITIES FOR MUTUAL
COLLABORATION BETWEEN JAPAN
AND MALAYSIA
1. It is a privilege and an honour for me to be here
today to share some thoughts with you on this topic `The
Digital Century: Opportunities for Mutual Collaboration
Between Japan and Malaysia'. The digital century or the
information age holds a lot of promise especially in the
context of a rapidly changing technological revolution
worldwide.
2. The digital economy stresses the importance of
networking of personnel worldwide or collaboration of
human efforts in exploring new and powerful ways to
achieve common enrichment through the use of information
technology. This is definitely one area in which Japan
and Malaysia can reap mutual benefit. Malaysia has
manpower skills in certain areas which are relatively
cheap and can be accessed by Japanese companies even if
not located in Malaysia, while Japan of course has
multimedia technology which can play a role in a
borderless economic world.
3. For technology companies to be internationally
competitive in the growth industries of the 21st century,
new industrial global standards need to be re-defined,even
as revolutionary I.T. products and services are developed.
Digitisation ensures greater accuracy and is said to be
the key factor driving the consumer electronics industry
in Japan in the 90s. Digitisation in many fields has not
yet been fully exploited. With Japan's experience and
knowledge in this field and in the use of multimedia,there
are almost unlimited possibilities for new industries to
be developed and expanded throughout the world with hardly
any need for direct face to face interaction of personnel.
4. As we approach the 21st century, fantastic changes
are taking place which made what was impossible in the
old economy of the Industrial Age suddenly possible in
the Information Age. For practical purposes, borders
have already disappeared because knowledge, capital,
company activities, and consumer preferences ignore lines
drawn 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 way.
5. In short, the digital 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. 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
will stubbornly oppose any change. Fortunately, these
corporate interests have not had time to develop and
become powerful in the developing countries, like
Malaysia.
6. Briefly, let me explain to you our plans to develop
the IT industry. The Multimedia Super Corridor or the
MSC in Malaysia will be the first place in the world to
bring together all of the elements needed to create a
special environment that will combine world leading IT
and physical infrastructure with a comprehensive
investment friendly package of incentives and support in
which multimedia companies can develop new technologies
and applications. The MSC will be a multicultural `web'
of mutually dependent international and Malaysian
companies collaborating to deliver new products and
services to customers across an economically vibrant Asia
and the world. This `web' will eventually extend beyond
Malaysia's borders and out across Malaysia's
multicultural links to our neighbours. In other words,
when we produce a product, component manufacturing can be
done in China, on machines that are programmed from
Japan, with software written in India, and financing
coming from the Labuan International Offshore Financial
Centre. The product may be assembled in Penang and
shipped to global customers direct from our new airport,
Kuala Lumpur International Airport within the MSC.
7. The first phase of the MSC should see hundreds of
large and small companies working collaboratively with
one another and with partners across the Asia-Pacific and
the world. Some of these companies will certainly be
today's leaders. Many others will be the smaller
companies that are members of each of these companies'
`web'. Hopefully, a few of tomorrow's leaders will be
from Malaysia with new products and services in the MSC.
8. Ultimately, MSC is envisaged to become a global
community living at the leading edge of the Information
Society. This will set the stage for Malaysians to enter
the digital century.
9. We therefore would like to invite your companies to
set up your R&D centres in our `Multimedia Super
Corridor', a green field area which runs from the world's
tallest buildings in the Kuala Lumpur city centre, down
to what will be the region's largest international
airport when it opens next year. We seek your co-
operation for collective and mutually-beneficial
collaboration in developing the MSC.
10. In addition, an MSC status qualifies companies for a
package of financial and non-financial incentives.
Companies may enjoy the following financial incentives:
* Five-year exemption from income tax, renewable to
10 years ; or a 100 percent Investment Tax
Allowance (ITA);
And
* Duty free importation of multimedia equipment;
In addition to the financial incentives, MSC-status
companies will be given the following non-financial
incentives:
* Unrestricted employment of foreign knowledge
workers;
* Freedom of ownership;
* Freedom to borrow funds globally.
11. Other MSC benefits include world-class physical and
IT infrastructure, intellectual property protection,
globally competitive telecom tariffs, no censorship of
the Internet, and excellent educational facilities,
including the region's first Multimedia University.
12. We have defined this path which hopefully will
transform Malaysia into a knowledge society. As a first
step, by 2000, we expect to see seven flagship
applications being developed in the MSC by webs of
international and Malaysian companies. These flagship
applications are electronic government, a national
multipurpose smart card, smart schools, a R&D cluster,
telemedicine, a worldwide manufacturing web, and
borderless marketing. We intend to be global pioneers in
these applications. Other countries have embarked on
similar initiatives. However, many are hampered by
entrenched interests and most do not provide the needs of
the IT industry as comprehensively as we do.
13. Over time, each of these flagship applications will
generate a web of world-class and Malaysian companies
collaborating to develop and deliver innovative products
and services.
14. In this context, it will be exciting for a project
champion to be identified for each of the areas of the
Flagship application of the MSC. No company can be the
champion for every application. As such, we can co-
operate to find out which company can champion the
application in which they can be the best in, and work
with their respective counterparts, whether it be
Japanese or Malaysian. They can then develop the
identified application into one which can be used as a
model for the world.
15. On the top of the priority list for mutual co-
operation we will be recreating and building paths that
lead us back to the basics of humanity. For all the new
technologies, strategies and structures, both physical
and invisible ones that are taking place inside
organisations today, the one central element crucial for
the continued growth of mankind is the one which focuses
on mobilising human intellect and spirit. Only by
bringing back that humanity and self-identity elements
can organisations hope to compete in this digital
century, which has been described by Lester Thurow as an
era of man-made brain power industries.
16. With all the dazzling effects of information
technology, we must never forget that artificial
intelligence can never replace the human intellect.
People - and specifically, managers of corporations -
must lead business and society with a social
responsibility that displays not only a balanced set of
values of humanity and ethics into their organisations
but one that will inculcate the spirit of corporate
integrity. In the digital century, in which everything
is reduced to bits and bytes, one needs to have something
solid and real to fall back on. As such, we will look
towards the corporate leaders from our two countries to
propagate our own philosophy of knowledge that is imbued
with our own sets of Asian values.
17. Japan and Malaysia should co-operate to create the
electronic communities that would actively produce the
indigenous content suitable to our needs. In this
regard, the MSC will provide the perfect opportunity for
this to take place. Again, we invite and welcome
Japanese businessmen, I.T. and technology experts to our
MSC to share with us their skills and knowledge, and
together, develop localised contents for multimedia
applications that will be of world class standards.
18. In the face of the information onslaught, we should
adopt a proactive approach towards counter-balancing the
western dominance of the cyberspace. We are not saying
that western influence is all bad. What we are
emphasising is that by being digital, being I.T. literate
and being technologically advanced does not mean that our
Asian values are not irrelevant. If anything, they will
be even more relevant for our men and women as they
search for their own niche and identities in a borderless
environment.
19. Our nations need more than industries and I.T.
competent men and women to stay ahead of the race in the
digital millennium; we will need also the zest of
creative imagination and free spirits, as expressed in
the arts and creative sciences. It will only be possible
if leaders can continue to create the means to mobilise
the energy and spirit and inner-strength of the
workforce.
20. Malaysia has much to learn from Japan. In fact, we
have adopted a Look-East Policy for almost 15 years, in
which we look to Japan as a model for our development.
We are particularly keen to learn about your work ethics,
your industrial practices and your technology. We have
been sending students to Japan to learn more from Japan.
Our bilateral relationship has therefore grown from
strength to strength.
21. In this context, Japanese companies can form
strategic alliances with Malaysian companies for business
collaboration in Third World Countries. Such smart
partnerships will benefit all three partners. More such
trilateral relationships can be explored meaningfully as
we move into the digital century.
22. Malaysia and Japan can together move into countries
of the South. Together, we can combine our resources and
achieve synergies in getting into Africa, Central Asia
and Latin America. Malaysia's pivotal position among the
G-15 countries and Islamic nations can be of strategic
advantage to Japan. We can together, identify
opportunities in these nations, bringing to them the
technologies they need to help them move ahead into the
digital century.
23. We have always welcomed Japanese investors in
Malaysia. Japan is currently Malaysia's biggest foreign
investor. Investments from Japan increased by 91.2
percent from RM2.3 billion in 1995 to RM 4.4 billion in
1996. Japan ranked first both in terms of number of
applications and proposed capital investments, in which a
discernible concentration was in the electrical and
electronic products industry. The Plaza Accord have
brought large numbers of Japanese investors to southeast
Asia in the mid 1980's, and helped Japan overcome the
problems caused by the endaka.
24. As we are poised to enter the digital century, we
should look at the structure and momentum of Japanese
investments in Malaysia in particular and South East Asia
in general. We in Malaysia require more capital
intensive and high technology investments and Japan is in
a position to meet this requirement especially in the
Information Age Where Japanese expertise is well-known.
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