Talent development being ignored7

Tuesday, 6 October 2009 | Filed under Human Capital

Malaysia should be an ideal country.

Offshore, we have large deposits of oil and gas beneath the seabed. Above it, the surrounding seas teem with marine life.

Onshore, the soil is so rich that tree crops like oil palm, rubber, cocoa, pepper and many others grow tall and strong almost anywhere they are planted.

We don’t have earthquakes that destroy what we build; we have never experienced the fear of fleeing from an exploding volcano spewing smoke, fire and molten lava; we are sheltered from the fury of typhoons, the latest of which killed hundreds in the Philippines before pounding the Indo-Chinese peninsula.

There are no war, no famine, no epidemic disease.

Malaysians just prefer to kill themselves or others with cars, trucks and buses on the roads.

Yes, Malaysia is a fortunate country.

The population is rich in cultural diversity. The three main ethnic groups – Muslims, Chinese and Indians – are the inheritors of ancient innovative civilisations that were centres of scholarship. Knowledge spurred their inventiveness and innovations long before Europe emerged from the backwardness of the Middle Ages.

Today, China and India are again driving ahead as the engines of growth of the global economy, while the capital-rich Muslim nations of the Middle-East are being courted by countries around the world.

With their cultural and linguistic advantages, Malaysian Chinese and Indian business people have built solid connections with their counterparts in China and India.

Malaysia’s overall trade with China increased by 10.3 percent to RM130 billion in 2008 from RM118 billion in 2007. Among the ASEAN members, Malaysia is China’s second largest trading partner, after Singapore.

Malaysia is ranked as the 19th major investor in China and the 2nd among ASEAN countries after Singapore.

Chinese investment in Malaysia totalled US$134 million (RM482 million) from 2000 to 2008 while Malaysian investment in China was 10 times more at US$1.36 billion (RM4.9 billion).

In 2007, India was Malaysia’s top trading partner within the South Asian region, with two-way trade totalling RM28 billion.

Malaysian companies have participated actively in the infrastructure development of India in the construction of roads, ports and airports. Currently, India is the main overseas market for the Malaysian construction industry.

Based on India’s statistics, Malaysia is ranked 21 among the foreign investors in India from January 1991 to January 2007, with investments approvals valued at US$1.8 billion (RM6.6 billion).

Likewise, Indian companies have made important inroads into the ICT sector in Malaysia. Many companies located in the MSC Malaysia are heavily dependent on skilled human capital from India.
According to the Indian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, there are over 100 Indian companies including 61 Indian joint ventures operating in Malaysia. Cumulative Indian investment in Malaysia from 1980 to 2007 is estimated to be over US$1.58 billion (RM5.7 billion).

During this period, India was the 7th largest investor in Malaysia.

The Middle-East has emerged as a key tourism market for Malaysia. The number of Arab tourists to Malaysia rose from less than 3,000 in 2001 to over 200,000 in 2008.

Just last week, Malaysia announced a US$2.5 billion (RM8.7 billion) joint-venture company with Saudi Arabia that will spearhead the flow of foreign direct investments from the Middle-East as well as make strategic investments in high-impact projects in Malaysia.

Systems not addressing talent development

Another advantage we inherited from our history is our ability to speak English. The use of English is at a very high level.

We are able to run English-medium universities that attract tens of thousands of foreign students. That is how good we are. That is how good our command of English is.

If Malaysia uses the talents and connections of all the three main ethnic groups wisely, this country could become very rich economically.

But the systems in the country don’t address talent development at all. They don’t encourage all Malaysians to excel in whatever they do best.

A Malaysian architect once noted that Malaysians took pride in Petronas Twin Towers, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and other mega-structures, but these were designed by foreign talent.

The architect went on to comment that when Pusat Tenaga Malaysia – a prototype low-energy building and a precursor to green architecture – was inaugurated, neither the architect responsible nor any member of the consulting teams involved in the design and construction of the building were invited to the event.

Unlike in the West, where design talents would be celebrated and held in high esteem, the profiles of their Malaysian counterparts were seldom published in local dailies except in the obituary column upon their demise, the architect added.

Little wonder that many Malaysian architects have chosen to use their talents overseas.

According to the Malaysian Institute of Architects, there were some 1,600 professional architects in the country in 2007 – about the same as the number 10 years before.

I have noted in this blog before that the best brains would go to where they could do their best work.

The result is migration of talents offshore, and Malaysia is a victim of this trend.

About 30,000 Malaysians with tertiary education are currently working in Europe. Tens of thousands of other Malaysians are contributing their skills and knowledge in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Singapore.

The people concerned should wake up to this reality and do what is necessary.

It is amazing that people sent overseas to receive a western education are not enlightened to what is happening in the world. Instead, they return and perpetuate the systems or even make them worse.

We have the cultures and heritage of the world’s most dynamic civilisations here in multicultural Malaysia. We only need to develop our talents and increase our knowledge to get on with creating and innovating.