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Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : STANFORD UNIVERSITY,
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA
Tarikh/Date : 15/01/97
Tajuk/Title : THE SILICON VALLEY CONFERENCE FOR
INVESTORS ON THE MSC : GLOBAL
BRIDGES TO THE INFORMATION AGE
1. First, let me thank the Stanford University for
inviting me to address you today. In this audience, I
see both the present and future shapers of the
Information Age. The present is represented by the
leadership of many of the area's most dynamic content
and high technology companies; the future by the
university students who will provide the future
leadership of the private and public sectors.
2. I think it is especially appropriate that we are
all together today to discuss a practical proposal I
have to achieve the full promise of the Information
Age. I have come here to the global cradle of
Information Technology to share a vision of building a
bridge between peoples and places, to connect your
creativity and entrepreneurship with a very special
environment we are creating in Malaysia. By doing so,
we can reap rewards together that neither of us would
be able to develop alone.
3. The success of a country depends on its ability to
adopt and adapt to global forces and not on the bases
exclusively of comparative advantages such as natural
resources, population, or labour costs. Visionary
countries can choose to create value rather than merely
struggle to make the most out of existing
circumstances. Just as companies cannot succeed by
trying to do everything themselves, the same is true of
countries -- especially developing countries. Malaysia
is not trying to build a replica of Silicon Valley or
Hollywood. We would be deluding ourselves if we expect
storyboards not to be created in Hollywood or R & D on
the highest value-added components not to be done in
Silicon Valley.
4. We realise you are more advanced and that we have
much to learn, but precisely because you are so
developed there are very important things we can do
that you cannot. Malaysia is offering the world a
special greenfield environment designed to enable
companies to collaborate in new ways and reap the rich
rewards of the Information Age. There are no legacies
of artificial constraints created and perpetuated by
entrenched interests. We offer the Multimedia Super
Corridor as a gift to the world -- a global bridge to
the Information Age that will enable genuine mutual
enrichment for our partners possessing the vision to
participate.
5. The Multimedia Super Corridor -- or 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 the usual constraints which frustrate them.
The MSC is a 15 km wide by 50 km long corridor that
runs from the world's tallest buildings in the Kuala
Lumpur City Centre, down to what will be the region's
largest airport when it opens in early 1998.
6. More than two years of careful study have gone
into developing a package with four key elements which
will make the environment within the MSC very special:
- First, the MSC will have the best physical
infrastructure that can be offered in the world. This
includes the Kuala Lumpur City Centre, a new airport,
rapid train links to Kuala Lumpur, a dedicated highway,
and two new intelligent garden cities. The Kuala
Lumpur City Centre is the Northern gateway to the MSC.
The Kuala Lumpur International Airport to be
commissioned in 1998 will initially have 80 gates with
two parallel runways. The airport will also become an
integrated logistic hub with the latest in IT to
facilitate movements of people and goods.
- The first intelligent garden city, Putrajaya,
will be our new administrative capital where most
Ministries will be relocating beginning with the Prime
Minister's office in 1998. Putrajaya will be
Malaysia's new electronic Government administrative
centre served by state of the art communications and
transportation systems. The neighbouring Cyberjaya, is
a city designed to provide the physical and
psychological spaces needed for creativity, the pursuit
of information age technologies and businesses and
relaxation. It will be built around the new Multimedia
University. Cyberjaya will provide top quality
intelligent buildings, multimedia enterprise estates,
residential housing, leisure and recreational
facilities, and state of the art supporting
infrastructure. It will support a working population
of approximately 150,000 and a living population of
over 100,000.
- 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. For example, our new Digital Signature Act
creates a regulatory framework for certifying
authorities and severe penalties for cyber-fraud. In
addition, we are developing a Multimedia Convergence
Act that will merge and update our telecommunications,
broadcasting, and information laws to reflect today's
rapid technological convergence. Finally, we know how
critical skilled workers are and have a series of
educational and training initiatives across the
country. All schools will be connected to the Internet
by the year 2000 and a Multimedia University will
produce graduates that will meet MSC companies skill
requirements.
- Third, the MSC will leapfrog available
information infrastructures with 2.5-10 gigabit Open
Multimedia Network that will use the latest ATM
switches to provide fibre to the Building. This
network will have a 5 gigabit international gateway
with direct links to the U.S., Japan, Europe, and other
ASEAN countries. This will be operational by 1998.
Value-added service providers will be able to compete
freely on this network with no restrictions on foreign
ownership and cost-based interconnect tariffs. Telekom
Malaysia has committed to offer competitive tariffs
that are comparable or better than other global
carriers and will provide world class network
performance standards.
- Fourth, a fully empowered one-stop shop called
the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC) has been
created to manage and market the MSC. 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. In addition, the MDC has been
incorporated under the Companies Act so it will be able
to operate independent of civil service rules and
regulations. The MDC has a free hand to hire the best
people in the world, and a business plan to serve the
needs of companies relocating to the MSC both before
and after they decide to establish operations in
Malaysia. The Deputy Prime Minister and I will
personally oversee the activities of the MDC and will
resolve issues brought to our attention.
7. Malaysia will be changing the way its people live
and work particularly within the MSC. This special
area will be a global `test-bed' for new roles of
Government, new cyber laws and guarantees,
collaborations between Government and companies,
companies and companies, education, delivery of
healthcare, and applications of new technologies. We
are looking for `Smart-Partnerships' -- win/win/win
relationships between companies and the Government.
For example, we will no longer require multimedia
companies to go through a traditional Request for
Proposal (RFP) process that requires us to have a
crystal clear concept of exactly what the company must
deliver. Leading companies told us this was
inappropriate for new areas of multimedia where the
solutions are developed rather than assembled from
existing knowledge. Instead of traditional tenders and
RFPs, we will ask companies for `concept proposals'
that describe the approach they would take to
developing solutions or achieving the benefits we have
requested. This allows us to select a consortium of
companies as a smart-partner to innovate new products
and services in the MSC. We will be doing this in
several application areas that I will describe shortly.
8. In short, Malaysia is taking a single-minded
approach to developing the country using the new tools
offered by the Information Age. The MSC will be the
R&D centre for the information based industries, to
develop new codes of ethics in a shrunken world where
everyone is neighbour to everyone else, where we have
to live with each other without unnecessary tension and
conflicts. Indeed, the MSC is a pilot project for
harmonising our entire country with the global forces
shaping the Information Age. Phase one involves making
the MSC a success by learning from our partners and the
experience we gain; Phase two will link up with other
islands of excellence within Malaysia; and Phase three
involves making all of Malaysia a Multimedia Super
Corridor that is connected to other smart-regions
around the world. I expect Malaysia to be in the final
phase by 2020 by which time we hope to be a developed
nation.
9. To our knowledge no other country is even
considering anything similar. Other plans may sound
similar because they all use `IT, Cyber, or Multimedia'
to market one or another development. But we are not
adding new facilities to existing ones or adapting a
concept to an existing area; we are building and
installing the latest on a huge 15 km by 50 km
greenfield site designed to realise the full potential
of multimedia. I hope others will link with our
Multimedia Super Corridor and become one of the central
pillars in our global bridge connecting the smart-
cities of the world. It is in our mutual interest to
collaborate rather than undermine each other because we
both will benefit from a better bridge.
10. As we 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 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 way. Although none of this
activity is captured by the economic statistics
developed in the Industrial Age, its impact is clear
and will require new types of international
institutions. In short, 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. This is a tremendous opportunity for those
companies and countries with the courage to embrace
these changes. For a limited time, there will be 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
healthier developed countries are locked into obsolete
industrial structures and legislative frameworks and
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.
11. The MSC is the first place in the world to bring
together all the elements needed to create the kind of
environment to engender this mutual enrichment. I see
the MSC as 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. I fully
expect that this `web' will extend beyond Malaysia's
borders and out across Malaysia's multicultural links
to our neighbours. Component manufacturing can then be
done in China, on machines programmed from Japan, with
software written in India, and financing coming from
Malaysia's Labuan International Offshore Financial
Centre. The product may be assembled in Penang and
shipped to global customers direct through our new
airport.
12. Malaysian companies are already working with world-
class international companies and technology transfer
is taking place. Moreover, companies and neighbouring
countries are benefiting as well because parts of the
product are produced in other locations. The consumer
benefits most of all because they get top quality
products at the best possible price. In short, all
parties touched by this `web' will benefit and are
enriched through their contribution to it.
13. Phase 1 of establishing the MSC will be complete
when the MSC is home to hundreds of large and small
companies working collaboratively with one another and
with partners across the Asia-Pacific region and the
world. Some of these companies will certainly be
today's leaders. Many others will be the smaller
companies which 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. I like multimedia because the most successful
companies are those which collaborate with many
partners and truly transfer technology to them-- not
out of charity but out of collective self-interest.
These companies know that they cannot stay at the
leading edge if they try and do everything themselves.
They realise that a web of smaller companies working to
common standards can deliver more benefits to the
consumer. I hope to see some multicultural Malaysian
companies alongside international companies thus
mutually strengthening the capabilities of both.
14. Phase 2 of linking the MSC with other islands of
excellence will be complete when the MSC becomes far
more than a business development. By then,the MSC will
be a global community living at the leading edge of the
Information Society. Citizens' smart homes will be
connected to a network through which they can shop,
receive information, be entertained, interact with one
another, and educate themselves. Phase 3 of
leapfrogging all of Malaysia into the Information Age
will be complete when the entire country is living and
working in these new ways. Of course when they grow
tired of all these new tangled things they can enjoy
the pristine environment which we have preserved in
Malaysia.
15. To achieve this vision, I think it is important to
define a path that leads to it. By 2000, I expect to
see seven specific applications being developed in the
MSC by `webs' of international and Malaysian companies:
- First, Malaysia will be a pioneer in electronic
Government. This will be a multimedia-networked
paperless administration linking Putrajaya to
Government centres around the country to facilitate
inter-Governmental collaboration and citizen access to
Government services. It will start with the Prime
Minister's office when it moves to Putrajaya in 1998
and roll out across the other ministries as they
relocate.
- Second, Malaysia will have the world's first national
multipurpose smart card. A single platform will have
the individual's ID and electronic signature and access
to Government, banking, credit, telephone, transport
and club services. Of course, security will be
critical but the technology is, I believe, already here
to enable all of these services to be on one secure
platform. Imagine the convenience as we are freed from
having to carry a huge pack of plastic cards and
selecting one every time we need to use a card. Imagine
the opportunity for companies of having no uncertainty
that this one card will be in the hands of every
Malaysian.
- Third, Malaysia will have a comprehensive programme
for smart-schools. All schools will be connected to the
Internet. A new curriculum is being developed, and our
teachers will be retrained so they can work with
technology to do far more than convey knowledge
in the traditional way. World-class distance learning
facilities will be built at the Multimedia University
and we hope to hold virtual classes with teachers
and students in other universities around the world.
We will use our schools to help students learn the
judgement and skills required to choose between the
overwhelming amount of information that will be
available to them.
- Fourth, I hope the MSC will become a
collaborative cluster of academic and corporate R & D
centre, using distance learning to produce world-class
graduates and next-generation innovations. Multimedia
University will be the centre for this, and I would
like to invite faculty and students from Stanford
University to help develop our new institution in
Malaysia through exchanges of students and faculty. I
would also like to invite companies interested in
partnering with Multimedia University to contact us.
This university will have close links to MSC companies
to ensure it will produce graduates with the right
skills.
- Fifth, Malaysia will be a regional centre for
telemedicine. With our Chinese, Ayurvedic,
Malay and Western medical knowledge and vast biogenetic
resources, we are a natural hub. Rural clinics can be
connected to medical experts from Malaysia and to the
great clinics world-wide using new tele-instruments for
remote diagnosis, therapy, or even surgery. The doctor
no longer has to be in the same room as the patient and
our new cyberlaws will make this legal. Key
information can be transmitted using new instruments
such as electronic stethoscopes operated by nurses or
technicians. This can be viewed and compared with
other patients by the world's best doctors and the data
on millions of patients already in the world's
computers.
- Sixth , I hope the MSC will be a remote
manufacturing coordination and engineering support web
that electronically enables companies in high cost
countries to access plants across Malaysia and Asia as
virtual extensions of their domestic operations. While
we have real strengths in manufacturing, we recognise
the need for companies to operate a network of
facilities around the region.
- Seventh , the MSC should become a marketing and
multimedia customer service hub leveraging Malaysia's
unique multicultural links to provide electronic
publishing, content localisation, telemarketing and
remote customer care to a market of 2.5 billion people.
For example, a Japanese company's catalogue can be
translated into Chinese or Bahasa Malaysia/Indonesia or
Indian languages by a company that takes orders through
a system that automatically localises the sizes and
currencies.
16. 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. They will take root
and grow in an environment that provides the required
lifestyle, infrastructure, laws, and policies. Equally
important, I expect links will develop which will
connect each of these webs together into one large MSC
web. Indeed, it is these links which will allow the
MSC to sustain its competitiveness over time. Malaysia
is a country with a vision and a strategy to achieve
the vision called Vision 2020. Our goal is to attain
developed country status by the year 2020. These
interlinked webs will allow us to achieve the goals of
Vision 2020 by developing a strong services sector to
balance our already strong manufacturing sector while
helping to improve the productivity and quality of life
in the nation. Equally important, the MSC will provide
a platform to tie us together and celebrate our culture
while helping to educate us in new and different ways.
17. Beyond Malaysia, the MSC becomes a global bridge when its
web is interlinked with those of other regions around the
world. This bridge will,I hope, connect with the digital
entertainment community in Hollywood and to the high-tech
companies in Silicon Valley.For example,storyboards can be
developed in California but animation be executed in the
MSC, electronically transmitted back to LA for editing,
sent back to the MSC for colour-balancing, and then
transmitted to the studio for final approval and
distribution. Let us explore ways to mutually enrich our
companies and countries through this gift being provided
by Malaysia.
8. The breadth of what I am describing has probably
never been attempted anywhere else in the world. You
may be thinking, `Why Malaysia?'
- First, Malaysia's physical location at the centre of
ASEAN and its multicultural links with the biggest
Asian markets is unique. The Malaysians are made up of
people of Malay, Indonesian, Indian and Chinese origin.
We are only a few hours flight from the major Asian
capitals. We have language skills and cultural
knowledge that can be very helpful. Most people speak
English as well as one or more languages such as
different Chinese or Indian dialects, or Malay. With
the new airport and communications infrastructure being
built, Malaysia will 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.
In fact, a recent study done by international
consultants on the cost of doing business in Malaysia
indicated it is among the most competitive in the ASEAN
region. To sustain this the Government will continue
to provide the enabling environment. Our people are
among the most productive in Asia.
- 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 any existing laws
or policies that impede the ability of companies to
capitalise on the benefits afforded by the Information
Age. We will not be diverted by excessive politicking
in Malaysia. In Malaysia things that need to be done
will be done quickly unobstructed by corruption.
- Finally, we are highly committed to making
the MSC a success and we have a track record of meeting
our commitments. We are a pragmatic Government which
has consistently proven our critics wrong even when we
adopt unconventional policies and strategies.
Malaysia's history since independence has shown
consistency and predictability so that long term
investment will not be threatened by the twists and
turns of volatile local politics. 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.
19. We have been very busy over the last two years
working with leading companies such as NTT to
understand the future needs of world-class companies.
McKinsey & Company has interviewed hundreds of
companies to understand their requirements and is
working with us to learn lessons from the experience of
other countries.
20. To ensure that the MSC will not fail, 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 for 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 ensure that the newly established
MDC, a high powered implementation agency, will act
as an effective`one-stop shop' to meet company needs.
21. These companies must be providers/heavy users of
multimedia/IT products and services and employ a
substantial number of knowledge workers. The
Multimedia Development Corporation is registering
interested companies and will be taking formal
applications for companies seeking `MSC Status' in
March. In addition to seeking world class companies,
the MDC is also seeking world class employees to help
it build the MSC.
22. To the students, I invite you to submit your
resumes to the MDC and fill out the employment
application on its website. There are opportunities at
its ten worldwide offices and at headquarters in
Malaysia. To the companies, I welcome your
participation and input. We need your vision,
creativity, entrepreneurship, and skill to give life to
the MSC. To the international community, we offer you
a perfect environment to try and find solutions to some
tough questions whose answers must cross borders: (a)
How will value that is collaboratively created in
several countries but sold in another be taxed?; (b)
How can intellectual property rights of knowledge-based
products and services be defined and protected?; (c)
How can responsibility for the accuracy and integrity
of information on the Internet be ensured? and finally,
how can society be protected from new forms of fraud,
counterfeiting, piracy, and viral attacks on the
systems that run companies or even countries? In
Malaysia, we are looking at the possibility of creating
a new Cyber-Court of Justice as an international centre
to look into these issues.
23. We may sound very ambitious for a small country,
but America itself was a small country in the 19th
Century. At that time, England launched the Industrial
Revolution but America won it. Why? Because the
technology could be moved to an environment much more
conducive to realising its full potential. Malaysia
has come late to industrialisation, and this has given
us the will and skill to make sweeping changes that
others cannot because we have much less to lose. The
MSC provides all the critical components required to
create the perfect environment to achieve the promise
of the Information Age. Today, it is much easier to
move technology and knowledge than it was 100 years
ago. This is why we believe we can build the global
bridge needed to move beyond the limits of the
Industrial Age. While I may be an optimist, I believe
this path to prosperity will be chosen over the
alternative of hegemony and win-lose economic
relationships. The globalising and harmonising forces
of the Information Age will prevent a clash of
civilisations or the Century of Asia. It will create
the World Century, the true Commonwealth of the World.
24. We hope you will become our partners in this
exciting endeavour to build a bridge to the promise of
the Information Age. The Multimedia Super Corridor
cannot succeed alone, or we will have an island instead
of a bridge for the global aspirations, capabilities
and vision of many leading edge companies who are
prepared to collaborate in a new environment. We hope
you will join us in constructing an enduring bridge
into the Information Age and realise the promise of the
upcoming World Century.
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