Lighting nation's high-income path

Zakri Abdul Hamid
New Straits Times
05-28-2011
Lighting nation's high-income path
Byline: Zakri Abdul Hamid
Edition: Main/Lifestyle
Section: Main Section

RESOLVED to graduate into the class of developed countries by 2020, Malaysia is banking on innovative science and technologies to help more than double its average per capita income, writes ZAKRI ABDUL HAMID.

ON May 17, the inaugural meeting of the Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council (GSIAC) for Malaysia was chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the premises of the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS).
A brainchild of the prime minister, the council includes 25 renowned international titans of economics, business, science and technology volunteering to help Malaysians achieve in 2020 an average annual income of US$15,000 in an environmentally- sustainable way -- helping, in other words, to light the nation's path to a green, high-income economy.

Resolved to graduate into the class of developed countries by 2020, Malaysia is banking on innovative science and technologies to help more than double its average per capita income of US$6,700 in 2009. The council is an important part of the nation's strategy for success.

A developed country is popularly considered to have an average national per capita income of US$15,000 or more. Other definitions combine national income with additional measures such as life expectancy (in Malaysia's case, 73.5 years) and education (literacy rate in Malaysia is 88.7 per cent of its 28 million population). Regardless of the criteria used, fewer than 20 per cent of the world's 235 countries are deemed "developed".

The prime minister says the council's advice and active partnership will help support the country's pursuit of several strategic initiatives to become a developed country, beginning with the creation of a model "smart city" and "smart village", in which an integrated system of information and other technologies help maximise the efficiency of a community's resource use and minimise waste.

With billions of people expected to live in urban areas in coming decades, several countries are rushing to build new green "smart cities", where necessities like water, power, traffic and communications are managed in a highly efficient way with sophisticated technological infrastructure. The goal is to improve everything from energy use, healthcare, education, traffic and shopping by doing it "smarter" with the help of IT.

In Malaysia's case, the goal is to augment and harness existing national IT strengths to address some of the country's most pressing challenges.

Applying IT to targeted municipal issues such as learning, health and energy conservation will help Malaysia become a centre of excellence with distinct technical competencies that can then be exported to other emerging markets.

NYAS can help by helping draw from relevant smart cities programmes and activities in other places and by linking leading global IT firms into these activities. In the case of smart villages, efforts may begin with the provision of fundamental Internet technology and wireless access.

The smart city/smart village initiative forms part of Malaysia's "Innovative Digital Economy" strategy, which in turn forms part of the prime minister's New Economic Model to transform Malaysia into a high-income nation by 2020.

The council's expertise will help Malaysia maximise the yield and economic benefits of its palm oil industry, including development of palm oil-derived biofuels and biochemicals, to improve both the national environment and economy. The creation of new academic centres of excellence in Malaysian universities will support this "Green Future" objective.

The council will also support highly targeted efforts in Malaysia to improve education, increase the number of children in science and technology, and foster mentoring programmes to help create more small and medium S&T-related enterprises.

"Malaysia's ambitious goal is to simultaneously reduce poverty and achieve a green economy. We see science and technology innovation as key to achieving that goal, guided by the advice and active support of some of the world's most distinguished entrepreneurial, scientific and economic experts," Najib said.

"These experts, convened in partnership with the New York Academy of Sciences, will liaise and work actively with key Malaysian agencies and institutions to develop quick wins in the palm oil industry, in the creation of a smart city and smart village, and in education -- nurturing the talent of our young people -- to raise the number of scientifically and technically-trained individuals, entrepreneurs and innovators in our country."

The council comprises 42 members -- 17 from Malaysia and 25 international members from China, India, Russia, Japan, Korea, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and United States.

The Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council is chaired by Najib. Its members include ambassador to the US, Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis, and four cabinet members.

President Barack Obama's science envoy to Malaysia, Rita Colwell, famed American economist Jeffrey Sachs, Kiyoshi Kurokawa, former science adviser to the Japanese prime minister, two Nobel laureates, Steve Forbes of Forbes Media, and Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Nobel Prize-winning United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, are among the international members.

NYAS president and chief executive officer Ellis Rubinstein, a joint secretary of the council, was instrumental in drawing up the membership list and it was heartening to observe the enthusiasm exuded by all those present on the possibilities that Malaysia could avail itself of in the realm of science and innovation as it heads towards Vision 2020.

"With an increasingly well-educated population, existing high- tech infrastructure and progressive leadership, Malaysia offers a perfect laboratory in which to potentially demonstrate how a developing country can transition to a high-income economy in an ecologically-sensitive manner," Rubinstein said.

"The opportunity has therefore attracted the active interest of some of the world's foremost business experts and scientists. The academy is interested in producing solid, meaningful results that will advance the well-being of Malaysians."

Indeed, the formation of the GSIAC is itself an innovation. Often, countries would seek out, at great expense, the advice of top- flight consulting companies or individuals to help them chart out their national economic strategies and it is not uncommon for these reports to be left on the shelves.

The GSIAC is different and unique. It is a dynamic and interactive process involving an enlightening dialogue between the prime minister of a country and some of the best minds in science, economics and business that the world can offer.

* The writer is joint secretary of the GSIAC and holder of the Tuanku Chancellor chair at Universiti Sains Malaysia

(Copyright 2011)