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In 1997, the 18th James Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies, was released. Apart
from the movie being the second to star Pierce Brosnan as Bond, it catapulted
Malaysian beauty Michelle Yeoh to stardom status. It also won her a key part in
Ang Lees Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000.
This column is not about Malaysian beauty Michelle Yeoh, but about the beauty
of Malaysia as it re-emerges as a South-East Asian Tiger. Incidentally, there
are four reasons why June is an appropriate month to discuss Malaysia:
- June 7 is the Malaysian Kings birthday. Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin took
over as the 13th King of Malaysia last year under Malaysias five-year
rotation system.
- June 9 marks the first wedding anniversary of Malaysias Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Jeanne. Jeanne was formerly married to the younger
brother of Abdullahs late wife, Endon Mahmood, who died of breast cancer on
Oct 20, 2005.
- As in June 2008, there were about 70 Indian IT companies with MSC
(multimedia super corridor) status in Malaysia and about 25 other Indian
companies with manufacturing tieups there.
- June 2009 will see an FTA (free trade agreement) in place between India
and Malaysia. The FTA could boost Malaysian exports to India 1.3 times to $12
bn, by 2012. India is currently Malaysias 9th largest trading partner and 9th
largest export destination.
More importantly, Malaysia is looking at over 6% GDP growth this year, fueled
by SMBs, or firms with up to 999 employees. SMBs will spend about $4.6 bn on IT
and telecoms this year, up some 11% over 2007. The telecom component will be
about $1.3 bn, according to the latest study by AMI Partners.
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Raju Chellam |
In AMI surveys, 90% of small businesses (companies with up to 99 employees)
ranked IT security as a key priority for investment in 2008. And most medium
businesses (100-999 employees) said boosting the Internet, networking bandwidth
and providing data backup was high on their agenda.
Modern Malaysia was formed in 1963 when British colonies of Singapore and the
states of Sabah and Sarawak joined the Malaya Federation.
From 1981 to 2003, Malaysia was under one PM, Mahathir Mohamad. He
diversified the economy from being dependent on agriculture and raw materials to
becoming an Asian Tiger with electronics and auto manufacturing, hospitality
services and tourism.
Today, Malaysia is an industrial powerhouse. In mid 2006, under the 9th five
year plan, Malaysia unveiled ambitious development schemes for several states to
boost investments. Malaysia now has 13 states in a total land area of 330,000 sq
km, a GDP of about $166 bn and a population of under 26 mn, about 7% of them of
Indian origin. Malaysia has a GDP per capita of $14,400, and boasts about 20 mn
cellphone users and about 12 mn Internet users.
Indo-Malaysian relations have had their hiccups. The worst was in March 2003
when 270 Indian IT professionals were mistaken for illegal immigrants in Kuala
Lumpur and were slapped and kicked in public by the Malaysian police. The
Malaysian government later apologized and took action against six cops involved
in the act.
Given Indias renewed branding as an intellectual power in the world,
Malaysia is now looking at attracting Indian and other Asian talent, technology
and investment to its shores. It would be best for India to look at the huge
opportunities in the IT and telecoms space in Malaysia as the country gears up
for a new morrow. After all, Tomorrow Never Dies.
The writer, a former Dataquest editor, is currently vice president
(Asia-Pacific) with Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, based in
Singapore. He can be reached at
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in
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