Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Tarikh/Date : 20/05/97
Tajuk/Title : MSC : A GLOBAL BRIDGE FROM EUROPE
TO ASIA FOR THE WORLD CENTURY
1. It is an honour for me to be here at this prestigious
Imperial College and I would like to thank the organisers
for inviting me to share my thoughts on the major forces
shaping the Information Age and some of the opportunities
this would create for both Europe's leading information
technology companies and Malaysia.
2. That we are having this dialogue is very appropriate
as I believe Europe`s traditional commitment to the
pursuit of knowledge gives it an infrastructure that is
critical for developing a highly competitive information
sector in your economies.
3. Today, we come together on the eve of what I would
like to call the "Century of the World", a century,
possibly unprecedented, of worldwide peace and shared
prosperity. This is because the forces that drive the
Information Age will result in the breaking down of
physical, social and economic barriers which can
stimulate growth through "mutual enrichment", i.e if we
chose so to do.
4. The world has truly entered a new era. In a
borderless world the production of goods and services can
truly be global. If we chose to cooperate rather than
confront and exploit, worldwide economic development and
prosperity is possible. Creativity, innovation, and
entrepreneurship are the scarce resources in a knowledge
economy, and these cannot be confined by borders. These
require the free movement of peoples and ideas which will
enable companies, countries, and people to benefit from
mutual enrichment. Every country and all the world's
people should have access to all the competitive
advantages of every kind everywhere.
5. Mutual enrichment is possible through the shared
creation of value by means of Awebs@ of alliances between
companies. The best companies will no longer be able to
perform all their economic activities within their
corporate borders. Like spiders, they would weave ever
more intricate webs of relationships with other companies
so that each performs the activity they do best. These
companies will collaborate across borders unaffected by
distances and generate increasing returns as more and
more partners and customers join their web. This is
possibly the new model of development for the Information
Age and it is likely that unless we are flexible and
responsive to changes in technology, industry structure,
or consumer preferences, we will be by-passed.
6. In an increasingly interdependent world, these webs
will be so widespread and so busy trading and partnering
that conflict will only hurt everyone equally. The fibres
that link these global webs do not break or even bend at
country or continental borders or cultural boundaries.
7. Four fundamental forces will be driving this
globalisation: A massive communication network that can
send information all over the world in real time; Capital
that will truly be global and needing market discipline
that transcends geographic or political boundaries;
Companies that have aspirations for global market
leadership and operations wherever it is economical
and rational for them to produce, distribute, or market;
and consumers whose taste for, and knowledge of, the
world's best will determine what they will buy.
8. The prophets of doom believe there will be a clash
of civilisations. But when business becomes thoroughly
international as it will be in a borderless
interdependent world, such a scenerio is very unlikely.
The civilisations would be so intermixed that the old-
fashioned confrontations would be physically impossible.
There may be tensions within societies and within nations
as the 21st Century forces every country to become multi-
ethnic and multi-religious. But such tensions can be
contained. Malaysia has the kind of racial and religious
mixture that will be common in all the world's countries
of the 21st century, and Malaysia has shown that peoples
of different ethnic and religious faiths can live and
work together.They clash at their own risk and detriment.
9. The Century of the World will be an Age of
Connectivity between peoples, places, information, and
ideas. In this context, Asia has a special role to play
in the creation of the World Century. For too long,
nations have been in the grips of a `beggar-thy-neighbor'
mindset. Whether we like to admit it or not, most people
and countries envy the success of their neighbours. If
they can they would ensure their neighbours, far and
near, will not make it. But in Asia today, at least in
East Asia, we have jettisoned the "Beggar-thy-neighbour"
mindset in favour of a "prosper-thy-neighbour" policy.
This is not an altruistic policy. The simple fact is
that when neighbours are prosperous we get less trouble
from them. Better still they become good trading
partners for us. In the last decade or so trade between
neighbours in East Asia has grown faster than trade
between regions or in world trade. It is the "Prosper-
thy-neighbour" attitude which has made ASEAN the fastest
growing regional organisation in the world. It is also
for this reason that we want to enlarge ASEAN by
admitting the last three South East Asian countries.
10. You know you are experiencing problem with the few
Asians and Africans living in your midst. But if the
south remains poor the trickle of illegal immigrants
might become a flood. Malaysia faces this problem. To
counter the migration we are investing in labour
intensive industries in neighbouring countries. If the
world is going to be borderless it will be better for
everyone to ensure neighbours become equally prosperous.
Otherwise there will be massive migration which is bound
to cause tensions in every country. Europe is especially
attractive for the poor of the south and the east.
11. We have so far been dealing with the industrial Age
and its problems. What will be the problems of the
Information Age? We do not know for certain. We can
postulate this and that but we have always been wrong
when forecasting the future. None of us foresaw the
invention of the microchip. But the microchip has
already changed our life radically. And now with the
advances in telecommunication we are going to undergo
even more radical changes which can make natural borders
and therefore nation states almost obsolete.
12. Europe of course has been taking down barriers
between states for a fairly long time now. It was not
because of the information age coming to Europe earlier.
It was simply because you have been fighting such
destructive wars against each other so frequently. You
know that with the sophistication of modern weapons you
cannot afford another European War. And so, beginning
with an economic community you have now evolved into a
European Union where borders between you no longer mean
much. Still, even if you have some experience with a
borderless world, you will need to know how it will
function in the Information Age.
13. For this, Malaysia offers the Multimedia Super-
Corridor as a huge test-bed for trying out not just the
technology but also the way of life in the age of instant
and unlimited information. With the liberalism and
freedom of your society, how will it fare in an
environment of total transparency? How will you manage
for example the total and absolute corruption of your
children through the internet and other nets as they make
available ever more gruesome violence and explicit
pornography?. How will you deal with the souls who are
going to be lost to the point of committing mass suicide,
or the access to simple technologies for making cheap
bombs and other weapons or even nuclear devices? Will
there be anarchy or will the Governments discover
themselves just in time before we go over the brink. I
don't think the Multimedia Super Corridor will provide
all the answers, but we can become a little bit wiser.
14. In January, I convened the first meeting of the
International Advisory Panel of the Multimedia Super
Corridor. This panel included industry leaders such as
Jim Barksdale (Netscape), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Bill
Gates (Microsoft), Nobuyki Idei (Sony), Lou Gerstener
(IBM), Bon Moo Koo (Lucky Goldstar), Jim Manzi, Scott
McNealy (Sun), Kenichi Ohmae, Eckhard Pfeiffer (Compaq),
Lewis Platt (Hewlett Packard), Hasso Plattner (SAP) and
Masayoshi Son (Softbank). They were enthusiastic about
our vision because they saw that we are serious about
removing the obstacles that Industrial Age policies,
laws, practices and attitudes had posed for them. They
are of course enthusiastic about the total way we propose
to go about doing this.
15. Firstly the Multimedia Super Corridor -- or The MSC,
is physically a 15 km wide by 50 km long corridor that
runs from the world's tallest buildings, the Kuala Lumpur
City Centre, in itself an intelligent precinct, down to
what will be the region's largest international airport
when it opens in 1998. This piece of real estate is
almost a greenfield site for the building of state-of-the-
art cities and systems. Half way between the KLCC and
the Kuala Lumpur International Airport will be two
cities; one, the new administrative capital of Malaysia,
and the other a cyber city where we will locate
industries, R & D facilities, a Multimedia University and
institutions, and operational quarters for multinational
corporations to direct their worldwide manufacturing and
trading activities using multimedia.
16. Both cities will have state-of-the-art communication
facilities with fibre to all offices, business premises
and houses. They will also be garden cities with large
water bodies so as to make life pleasant and to stimulate
creativity among the knowledge workers we expect to live
there. The cities will be linked to Kuala Lumpur and the
Kuala Lumpur International Airport by a brand new rail
line and dedicated highways, while a system of light rail
transport will move people within and between the two
cities.
17. Putrajaya, the new Federal Government
Administrative capital will itself become a test bed for
an electronic Government. Equipped with the latest in
telecommunication technologies, companies worldwide will
have a chance of providing, testing and experiencing
electronic Government in a real Government environment.
Needless to say supply of Government requirements in this
area will favour companies located in the MSC.
18. The Malaysian Government has always been business-
friendly. But we are going to be even more friendly to
those who participate in our MSC. Knowledge workers will
be able to get in and out of the MSC without hassle. They
will be treated like special guests. Multiple entry
visas will be given. Of course they must be genuine and
companies operating in the MSC must vouch for them.
19. We will allow 100 percent ownership of companies,
and unlimited employment of knowledge workers from
abroad. We feel sure that where our people qualify,
and many are qualified, you will employ them. But we are
not going to insist.
20. We will not censor the Internet. But if you
download and distribute illegal material you will be
subjected to the usual laws of the country. We are
hoping that one day there will be worldwide understanding
as to what can and cannot go into the internet. But
until then you will be free in the MSC.
21. Bureaucratic procedures will be reduced to the
minimum. We will use one-stop agencies. Presently, the
Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC) will act as a
one-stop agency with authority to designate MSC qualified
investments. You need only to contact MDC to clear any
doubts that you may have or get any official sanctions.
22. Approvals for the few official requirements will be
expedited. In Malaysia we move fast. The world`s
tallest building was built at the rate of one floor every
four days. We also build buildings from above down. A
good construction consortium will build Cyberjaya and
they will undertake to build any building in double-quick
time. The first building in Cyberjaya, the Multimedia
University, will be up soon. But even before that, the
University will already be operational. So if you decide
to locate your headquarters or whatever building in the
MSC, you can expect construction to be rapid, of a very
high standard and at minimal cost. The first building in
Putrajaya, the new administrative capital, is already
going up and will be occupied next year. And of course
many multimedia institutions are already operating in the
MSC.
23. But the MSC of course is not a matter of buildings
and highways. For the MSC to function we must have the
necessary laws, cyberlaws. These laws are designed to
facilitate the use of multimedia and include protection
of intellectual property, validation of digital
signatures and computer transactions, prevention of
computer crimes,laws on the convergence between telecoms,
broadcasting, computers and other systems and a host of
others not presently covered by existing laws. Some of
these laws have already been passed by Parliament while
others are being drafted. We don't think they are
perfect. Amendments will have to be made as we learn
more of the usage of multimedia and as new technology
poses new problems.
24. We have also initiated work on seven flagship
projects which will test the role of information and
multimedia in a real-life human society. We are studying
various proposals for one smart card to replace the many
smart cards which are beginning to weigh us down
literally. It is possible that a single card will
contain all information about an individual including his
identity, his licences and other official documentation,
his electronic purse for daily transactions and his fares
for all kind of transport. All information will be
secured and exclusive. Through this smart card, we would
be able to resolve some of the problems faced by a
citizen relating to the society in which he lives.
25. We will also initiate the electronic Government, a
multimedia university, media industry clusters, a web to
enable companies to operate worldwide without having to
do much physical travel, smart schools and the most
effective system of distance learning and telemedicine.
You can see that there are many areas which multimedia
companies can participate in developing the best system
for now and for the future. And of course what you
develop and test in the MSC you can market throughout the
world. There will be innumerable opportunities for
business in the information-based industries.
26. But best of all you are going to participate in the
shaping of an information age society. Like all things
the good will always be accompanied by the bad. Being
able to communicate with more people through the Internet
will give you the opportunity to make new friends all
over the world. But if you are going to be glued to your
computer all your waking hours, you may lose the intimacy
of personal relations and personal contacts. Your
friends will be pictures and words on the screen and
pictures and words are not the same as flesh and blood.
We will become less than human if we never physically
come in contact with our friends, or any enemies, for
that matter.
27. People may develop new personalities and they may
become quite unbalanced by the masses of information
assimilated. We know of the Heaven's Gate people who
ended up committing suicide. Are they the only ones? Or
are there many others with equally bizarre ideas?
28. A new field of study will be required if we are
going to deal with the phychological changes which the
information age can bring about. There will be
opportunities to make use of the MSC to study these
changes. Before we adopt the internet culture as
standard culture for the world, wouldn't we like to know
the possible contents of that culture, and how we can
deal with them or influence them in a practical way? The
Information Age should result in a greater world
civilisation than any civilisation that we have known in
the past. But much depends on our understanding of the
new age.
29. Clearly the role the MSC can play is unlimited. True
almost every country has a project which will test the
technologies of the Information age and Multimedia. All
of them are important and probably quite unique. They may
result in us knowing more about the applications of
Multimedia and instant unlimited information. But I
would like to claim that the MSC is the most
comprehensive Test Bed devised for the purpose of
learning and testing the technologies and their
application in the Information Age.
30. Malaysia is quite conscious that it is not the
master of leading edge technologies in any field. Even
in the industrial age we lag behind, having achieved
perhaps the status of a newly industrialising country.
Certainly we are not leading in the field of Multimedia.
We are not even experts in the needs of multimedia and
the Information Age to be able to foresee and prepare the
necessary infrastructure.
31. But we are prepared to listen to advice and act on
them. In Malaysia, we hold extensive budget dialogues
with the private sector, with trade unions, with NGO's
yearly before we prepare our budget. The Minister of
Trade and Industry holds similar dialogues with the
private sector to get direct feedbacks and suggestions
on what the Government should do in order to grow the
economy, in order to cater to the needs of the private
sector. And we keep our ears close to the ground for
political feedbacks because we believe political
stability is essential for a country's development.
32. And so for the MSC we have set up a powerful
International Advisory Panel on which sit practically all
the big names in information technology from America,
Europe and Asia. We are serious about listening to them
on how we should configure the MSC. And we know they are
serious too, for many of them have already started
operating out of Malaysia, have booked sites for their
facilities in the MSC. Some 1000 serious enquiries have
been received, and 30 of the major players are among
those who have committed themselves to the MSC.
33. These companies are already involved in the
structuring of the MSC. Companies such as Microsoft,
Sun Microsystems, Netscape, EDS and IBM have dedicated
more than 50 full-time experts to work with the Telecom
Ministry employees and its consultants, McKinsey & Co, to
draft a new type of RFP or Request for Proposals to
maximise the scope for the bidding consortia to pioneer
new standards and solutions. The MSC may still fail of
course but the chances are quite remote. Those who do
not come on board now may find the going tough later. And
remember, we are not developing the MSC just for
ourselves. It is our contribution to the World Century
of the Information Age. What you do and what you
discover in the MSC will have worldwide impact and
application for you and for the world at large. We are
not being altruistic. There is a lot in this project for
us but there is also a lot in it for everyone. It is
truly an exciting experiment and you must admit that it
has stirred up worldwide interest within the industry and
outside.
34. Just in case you are still not convinced we are
serious and we are business-friendly, I would like to
give further proof of our commitment.
35. 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 within the
physical boundaries of the MSC:
- Malaysia will provide a world-class physical
information infrastructure;
- Malaysia will allow unrestricted movement of
knowledge workers in and out of the country with no
employment restrictions;
- Malaysia will ensure freedom of ownership of
companies;
- Malaysia will allow freedom of sourcing capital
globally for MSC infrastructure and freedom of borrowing
funds;
- 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;
- The MSC will become a regional leader in
intellectual property protection and cyberlaws;
- Malaysia will ensure no censorship of the Internet;
- The MSC will have globally competitive telecoms
tariffs;
- Malaysia will tender key MSC infrastructure
contracts to leading companies willing to use the MSC as
their regional hub; and
- Malaysia will provide a high powered implementation
agency to act as an effective `one-stop shop' to ensure
the MSC meets company needs.
36. As you may know this is the third stop in my odyssey
to drum up interest and support for the Multimedia Super
Corridor. I feel quite sure that European Companies
active in the field of Information Technologies will
respond well to the project. We need your advice and
your help. We need of course your investments, which
will benefit us and will benefit you as well.
37. Europe is now a union of many linguistically and
also culturally different countries. But the unification
of systems in Europe has not been easy. And it is also
difficult to change Europe's laws, industrial practices
and policies to cater for the Information Age. In the
MSC we are offering European multimedia companies an
environment that is not hamstrung by policies and
practices that cannot be easily changed to accommodate a
whole new set of businesses, business practices and
technologies. I am sure that European Companies are as
ready to take up the opportunities and the challenges
which have been taken up by leading edge-companies of
America and Japan. I would like to invite you to join
us in the creation of the Century of the World through
Infotech provided by Malaysia's Multimedia Super
Corridor.
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