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Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : DEWAN TUN ISMAIL, PWTC,
KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh/Date : 28/11/96
Tajuk/Title : MAJLIS PELANCARAN PELAN INDUK
PERINDUSTRIAN KEDUA
1. Terlebih dahulu saya ucapkan terima kasih
kepada Kementerian Perdagangan Antarabangsa dan
Industri kerana menjemput saya untuk merasmikan
pelancaran Pelan Induk Perindustrian Kedua (PIP2) di
sini hari ini.
2. Pelancaran Pelan Induk Perindustrian Kedua ini
menandakan permulaan era baru perindustrian bagi
Malaysia, iaitu satu dekad yang bersifat lebih
global, yang wujud liberalisasi ekonomi yang lebih
luas dan saingan yang lebih hebat. Ianya juga
merupakan dekad yang penuh dengan cabaran-cabaran
dan peluang-peluang baru bagi negara kita yang
sedang menuju ke arah status negara maju dan
perindustrian sepenuhnya menjelang tahun 2020. Oleh
kerana perindustrian adalah penggerak utama kepada
pembangunan ekonomi, adalah penting negara merangka
arah dan tumpuan yang tepat bagi perkembangan
perindustrian supaya Malaysia boleh membangunkan
satu sektor perindustrian yang kompetitif, dinamis,
kukuh dan mempunyai ketahanan menjelang tahun 2020.
Dengan tumpuan utamanya menguasai seluruh rangkaian
nilai sektor pembuatan, PIP2 melalui pengukuhan
pertalian industri, peningkatan kegiatan nilai
ditambah dan peningkatan produktiviti, akan mengubah
struktur industri Malaysia kepada suatu yang
berupaya menghadapi cabaran-cabaran dalam dekad akan
datang.
3. Let us however recall the process of our
industrial development so that we can learn a few
lessons from the past and so be better able to chart
our course for the future. We must not be tired of
being reminded that we were once a relatively poor
agricultural and mining country. Such was the
importance of tin and rubber that the whole
national budget was based on the projected prices of
these two commodities.
4. But we learnt that we were at the mercy of
markets outside our control, markets which
functioned without any ethical code. Thus when
foreign market players speculated in tin and found
themselves unable to deliver, the Metal Exchange
concerned simply decided that the contract should be
ignored. And of course the terms of trade kept
deteriorating. We had to sell more and more
commodities in order to buy less and less of
manufactured goods. All these were not doing our
economy any good. Unemployment stayed at 7 percent
or more.
5. We had to industrialise somehow. We had little
knowledge or skill in manufacturing, owning and
operating a few rice mills and rubber smoke-houses
only. We had therefore to rely on direct foreign
investments in manufacturing. Except for one or two
Japanese manufacturers the rest were not keen to
take us as partners. We had to allow for one
hundred percent foreign ownership. We did not mind
too much because our objective then was limited i.e.
escape from being a commodities producer and to
provide jobs for our people. The Government was
prepared to forego revenues as long as our people
could have jobs no matter how lowly paid. The tax
holiday were for 10 years but even after that we in
fact collected practically no taxes.
6. The strategy was very successful, so successful
that today we are so short of workers that we have
to rely on foreign workers. We should really have
adjusted quickly, at the first signs. But we
allowed ourselves to be influenced by the need of
investors, who still want to operate labour
intensive industries.
7. The problem has become very serious now. With
over 1.7 million foreign workers, legal and illegal,
most of them using facilities such as hospitals and
schools meant for our people, not to mention crimes
and communal tension, we just cannot pander to the
wishes of labour dependent industrialists any more.
We hope they understand.
8. And so we have to change our strategy, our
industrial policy. Again we have to take care of
the majority of our people, our workers. As long as
there are foreign workers ready to work in low-paid
jobs, our workers will not get better pay. We have
therefore to switch to capital or technology-
intensive industries which require fewer but more
skillful workers. If we don't have them, we will
have to train them. Fortunately our workers learn
fast, if they are given the correct training.
9. Obviously with hitech products the value added
per worker will be more. The industries will have
to invest more in automation and robotics but the
fewer workers that they employ should be paid more.
And the need for foreign workers would be reduced.
It is not that we don't care for them. Our
industrialists have been urged to invest in
countries where the foreign workers come from in
order to create jobs at home for them. The benefits
to them and their country would be much more if they
work at home.
10. In the meanwhile we have devised a new
industrial plan, the Second Industrial Master Plan.
The thrust of this plan takes into consideration the
need for continued economic growth, enhanced exports
and increasing the value of the goods produced and
exported.
11. To achieve all these, other than encouraging
capital and technology-intensive industries, we have
selected certain segments of industry which we think
we can go into and which will give us access and
benefits of the latest in modern technology. We
have decided to go into engineering, in particular
automotive engineering, into telecommunications and
the IT industries. We will also focus on small and
medium-scale industries intended not only to supply
the need for components by the major industries but
also to produce high quality components and even
finished products for the export market.
12. A new large automotive city will be set up
which will eventually have the capacity to produce a
million cars. Included in the plan are clusters of
supporting industries manufacturing components and
parts which will supply the principal car
manufacturer,other industries and exports.
Motorcycles and commercial vehicles and engines of
various types will also be manufactured, again with
supporting SMI clustered around the principal
manufacturers.
13. For the telecommunication industry the
principal thrust will be in the Multimedia Super
Corridor, where IT industries will be centred and
will operate from. Manufacturing of
telecommunications equipment, electronics and
Malaysian-branded household appliances will be given
a strong push.
14. The government has agreed to offer special
fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to promote the
development of the latest information-based
industries. A total of eight special areas have been
identified, including telemedicine, smart schools,
research and development clusters, application of
multipurpose cards and electronic government. In
addition, a sum of RM 721.4 million has been
allocated for research programme under the recent
1997 budget. While this will serve as a catalyst
for the development of IT-based industries, the
industrial sector must make efforts to adopt
information and knowledge-driven processes in
manufacturing and other related activities, in
particular the application of information technology
for electronic commerce.
15. In supporting the development of Malaysia's
competitive cluster industries, as envisaged under
the IMP2, the Government will continue to ensure
adequate provision of quality infrastructure and
other support facilities to facilitate their
development. This will include human resource
development, R&D, indigenous technology development,
improvement of incentives and administrative
delivery mechanism, as well as quality support
services, such as ports, business services,
transport and packaging.
16. The Malaysia Incorporated concept will continue
to be emphasised as a major strategy for public-
private sector cooperation in furthering the course
of national development. Constant consultation and
development of close rapport between the public-
private sectors will continue to be a key factor in
Malaysia's economic progress. While the public
sector will continue to undergo major structural and
attitudinal changes to effectively assume its
assigned role as pace setter and facilitator to the
private sector, it is equally important that the
private sector must be strong, robust, self-reliant,
competent and above all, imbued with healthy
business ethics to become good corporate citizens.
They should not only be profit motivated but must
demonstrate social responsibilities towards the
nation and to their employees.
17. Efficiency is not only expected from the
industrial sector but also from the services sector
as this is crucial to the overall development of the
economy. Services such as banking, insurance,
engineering design, marketing, public-relation,
advertising, inspection, transport and distribution,
warehousing, communication and general consultancy
must be equally competitive qualitatively and in
terms of price.
18. We know the very strong competition for Direct
Foreign Investments that is going on now,
particularly in South East Asia. Malaysia must
therefore rely more and more on investments
generated domestically. Domestic capacity is
growing both in terms of capital as well as know-
how. But we will still need foreign investments,
especially in the latest hitech sectors. We will
continue to support FDI but we will also give local
investors a helping hand.
19. There is, as you may have suspected, a
political dimension to this Industrial Master Plan
as there has always been with all Malaysian Plans.
We are not industrialising because we want to change
the landscape from rice-fields, rubber and palm oil
estates to one that will mirror the developed
industrial nation that we aspire to be.
20. We are industrialising because we believe that
only through industrialisation can we ensure
increasing wealth and sophistication for our people.
We also believe that it will help reduce the
economic imbalance between the various races who are
citizens of this country. We note that since we
have succeeded in doing this to a great extent our
politics is stable. But we are also concerned that
we do not have as large a Bumiputera middle class as
to reflect the proportion of the population they
constitute.
21. The Government will therefore want to see that
the implementation of the Second Industrial Master
Plan will turn out more Bumiputeras with middle
incomes. I will not elaborate on how this can be
done, but we know that this can be done. We crave
your support and indulgence in this. It will be
good for everyone and especially for the business
community, for if you look around, you will
appreciate the value of strong committed governments
which do not spring surprises on you. Business
needs time to mature and be profitable. You will
not invest if you cannot know with some degree of
certainty what the future will look like. Your
appreciation of our political agenda will contribute
towards stability which in turn will benefit you.
22. Tempoh 10 tahun yang akan datang adalah
mencabar, di peringkat antarabangsa dan dalam
negeri. Malaysia perlu dinamik, inovatif serta
pragmatik, dan lebih penting sekali, sektor swasta
perlu mengambil peranan utama dan proaktif dalam
menentukan berjayanya pelaksanaan program-program
perindustrian negara. Dalam semangat Persyarikatan
Malaysia, Kerajaan akan menentukan yang jenteranya
di semua peringkat akan terus berjalan dengan
efisien dan sektor swasta akan dibawa berunding.
Insya-Allah, dengan kerjasama dan sokongan semua
pihak Malaysia akan menjadi sebuah negara
perindustrian sepenuhnya menjelang tahun 2020.
23. Dengan kata-kata ini, saya dengan sukacitanya
melancarkan dengan rasminya Pelan Induk
Perindustrian Malaysia yang Kedua.
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