November 24, 2009 by admin
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By Lee Wei Lian from The Malaysian Insider
The nation’s mismanagement of talent could have serious
repercussions not only on its ambitions to become a high income
economy on par with that of developed nations but could also lead
it to fall further behind even its counterparts in the region.
Head of research at Corston-Smith Asset Management, Lim Tze
Cheng, recently did a tour of South East Asian countries and came
away sufficiently impressed that he feels Malaysia may soon be
found lagging behind its neighbours that it was once ahead of.
He cited a recent visit to the Philippines, a current major
supplier of maids, where he visited a company, International
Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI) and he drew comparisons to
local port champions Westport and Port of Tanjung Pelepas.
He said that ICTS now draws 50 per cent of its revenue from
eight profitable ports outside the Philippines, and noted that no
Malaysian port company can boast of similar achievements.
“I give it a 70 per cent chance that Malaysia will be exporting
maids in 20 years. I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens unless
we get our act together,” he said.
Lim says that the issues plaguing Malaysia includes its
“problematic” education system and distressingly low ability to
retain talent.
“Whoever manages to excel in our education system will be
courted by Singapore,” he points out.
Lim is not the only one who is worried about Malaysia’s talent
issues and there has been warnings from other parties as well
including the World Bank and the Malaysian Employers Federation
(MEF).
“The (Malaysian) economy seems to be caught in a middle-income
trap – unable to remain competitive as a high-volume, low-cost
producer, yet unable to move up the value chain and achieve rapid
growth by breaking into fast growing markets for knowledge and
innovation-based products and services,” the World Bank said
recently.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak appears aware of the
problem and has been stressing the need for the country to embrace
innovation to escape the “middle-income trap” as well as attract
overseas talent, Malaysian or otherwise.
He noted recently as an anecdote that half of the medical
specialists working at the Mt Elizabeth hospital in Singapore were
Malaysians and two weeks ago hosted a dinner for about 100
Malaysians in Singapore and told them that the government would
make Malaysia a better place to live and work in, to bring back its
citizens who are residing overseas and also attract global talent
to the country.
“We will create more opportunities, more excitement and more
buzz in Malaysia to attract the Malaysian diaspora and expatriates
to the country,” said Najib.
Lim says that revamping the education system could take years
and one fast way to lure talent was to open the Malaysia My Second
Home programme to talented individuals such as scientists and
researchers instead of limiting it to just retirees.
Haji Shamsuddin says that the government needs to put in place
the right policies and structures to retain local talent.
“Otherwise, we become a training ground for others,” he
said.
MEF executive director Haji Shamsuddin Bardan says that Malaysia
is currently a net exporter of talent with outflows exceeding
inflows.
According to Haji Shamsuddin, Malaysia has only about 38,000
expatriates as compared with seventy to eighty thousand in the
1990s even while some 785,000 Malaysians are working abroad, two
out of three of which are professionals.
“Our ability to attract expatriates is quite challenged,” he
said.
If Malaysia falls further behind our neighbours in the next
twenty years, it wil be a case of history repeating itself.
Lim points out that Malaysia in the 1970’s was once economically
on par with Korea.
“Electronics will be dominated by Thailand and Philippines,
plantations by Indonesia, financial services by Singapore and our
oil could be depleted in 20 years,” Lim predicts. – The Malaysian
Insider
Source:TheTemasek Review