Published: Monday November 9, 2009 MYT 11:33:00 AM
Updated: Monday November 9, 2009 MYT 2:05:11 PM

Aiming for 6pc GDP growth until 2020

By DHARMENDER SINGH

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia will work towards achieving an annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 6% until the year 2020 in order to meet its target of becoming a high-income nation, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Najib, also the Finance Minister, said this growth was necessary to raise the nation’s per capita income from the current US$7,000 to at least US$17,000 (RM24,500 to RM59,500) by the year 2020 in order to qualify as a high income nation under World Bank classifications.

He said he was already working to transform the economy and MSC Malaysia should play a big role in helping to build a world-class technology sector that would serve as one of the engines of growth in the New Economic Model to be unveiled by the end of this year.

“The New Economic Model will be powered by innovation, creativity and high-value activities which are a natural fit with MSC Malaysia’s aspirations to build a vibrant Malaysian ICT (information and communications technology) industry,” he said in his opening remarks at the MSC’s 21st Implementation Council Meeting here on Monday.

Najib said MSC Malaysia was already stressing various ICT sectors and had put in place the framework for a regional creative multimedia hub with 200 companies generating RM677mil in annual revenue in the areas of post-production, animation, game development, e-learning, and mobile and interactive content.

As such, he said, it was important to take advantage of this strong start to win a bigger share of the global content market that was estimated to beworth RM2.2 trillion in 2009, he said.

He said Malaysian creative companies had a vast potential to produce exportable content that was on par with -- if not better than -- that produced by other countries and he had witnessed this during his visit to the recent MIPCOM event in Cannes, France.

“We have also numerous ICT companies that have the potential to go global, and some which already have, like Synamatix, Jobstreet and Symphony BPOSolutions.

“So we have to ensure that our plans to groom our own global icons from MSC Malaysia remain on track and ensure that their products are of global standard as well as cost competitive.

“These global icons are not only good for the country’s branding but will instill pride and inspire all Malaysians to be innovators and doers, not mere followers,” he said, adding that Malaysia also needed to reassess the implementation of strategies in view of the more complex and challenging global environment and chart the country’s direction in the next 10 years.

He said Malaysia also needed to increase adoption of local ICT solutions and services in the domestic market to give them a stable home base from which they can branch out to international markets.

He said Malaysia also enjoyed a strong presence of multinational companies and this was a testament to the quality of the workforce here and the attractiveness of the incentives available.

However, he said, companies now faced difficulties finding knowledge workers due to the imbalance of supply and demand, and there was therefore a need to ensure that the education system and social environment attract and retain talent for now and in the future.

Najib said ICT should not just be seen as an industry to be developed but also as an enabler for major economic sectors to increase their productivity and efficiency so that there whould also be more initiatives to benefit citizens and to improve the quality of life.

He called on ministries to take a proactive approach in maximising the use of ICT in the delivery of public services as it can improve the quality of life and the image of the Government.

He said the e-government project using MSC applications made it possible for the public to conduct business with the Government over the Internet anytime of the day or week, and so served as one of the ways to make great strides in improving public service delivery.

However e-government should move one step further and go beyond the mere automation of government transactions, he said.

“It has to build the types of services that the public needs and expects, including making full use of available multimedia tools, mobile access devices and social networks on the Internet.

“Only when the citizens utilise the services and derive benefit from it can we consider it a successful delivery of public services,” he said.

Najib also said that in the fourth quarter of 2008, MSC Malaysia had, despite the global economic slowdown, recorded a steady revenue growth from RM17bil to RM21.8bil, which was a year-on-year growth of more than 23%.

Up to 2008, he said, there were over 90,000 high skilled jobs in MSC Malaysia which accounted for more than a quarter of the ICT workforce in the country.

He said MSC Malaysia contributed over 1.2% to Malaysia’s GDP in 2007 and said he would like to see the figure more than triple by the year 2020.