Malaysia's marketing opportunities and biggest challenges

1. Despite recent events that have been broadcast far and wide, Malaysia is still considered to be a safe, peaceful and happy place to live.

2. Malaysia's greatest strength has to be it's people who want continued economic development. There are many marketing opportunities for this country which hopefully will be part of the realisation of the "new economic model". But these opportunities mean facing up to some big challenges. For example, a lack of a highly skilled workforce, too little research and development, an over-dependence on oil revenue, not enough innovation and creativity in the private sector.

3. How can Malaysia become a high income nation based on innovation?

4. The World Bank Report 2009 on Malaysia identifies a number of areas of opportunity for the nation to realise it's transformation. To focus on value-added industries for example electronics and Islamic financing. Malaysia can be a halal hub and a leader in medical tourism. Given it's extensive tropical forests, this offers the opportunity to discover cures for serious illnesses.

5. Malaysia has many and diverse resources. Unfortunately most of these are mined by overseas companies. There is little timber left due to illegal logging.

6. A huge weakness that needs to be addressed is the decline in the private sector as a contributor to the economy. In 1997 the private sector contributed 20% to GDP. It is now around 10%. Local manufacturers have been investing elsewhere. Foreign direct investment has been very low for a decade.

7. And what of Malaysia's greatest asset? Only 25% of the workforce have the skills necessary for specialisation of the economy. Only 10% of school leavers take up vocational and technical courses. In Australia, for example, it is 60%.

8. Povery has declined considerably across Malaysia, however some states like Sabah and Terengganu still register high levels of poverty. Economic growth has been largely concentrated on a few states with better infrastructure. Other than the Iskandar economic region in Johor, the other 4 "economic corridors" have been very quiet.

9. The days of subsidies could be well and truely drawing to a close in an attempt to bring down the deficit.

10. The "new economic model", due to be implemented shortly by the Government, can only work with increased development of higher level skills, increased investment in research and development and a change in culture in the public and private sectors. For the model to work there needs to be further development of a stable, fair and friendly business environment which encourages greater entrepreneurship

Key reference

2009 World Bank Report (Malaysia)