Malaysia edges closer to high-tech dream

Malaysia edges closer to high-tech dream

By Eileen Ng

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia edged closer to its dream of becoming a Southeast Asian high-tech powerhouse when it opened bids recently for 15 multimedia projects, pitting it against more advanced rival Singapore.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad invited both foreign and local companies to tender for pilot projects, estimated to be worth US$640 million, in the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project near here.

"The possibilities are enormous," Mahathir said Saturday as he formally launched the conceptual blueprints for the projects.

The proposals outlined criteria for companies to submit bids for 15 pilot projects, ranging from "electronic government" -- public services on-line -- and "smart schools" with classrooms in cyberspace.

The government has also identified borderless marketing, research and development clusters, and "telemedicine" -- a system permitting medical consultations by computer -- among other applications in the MSC.

Mahathir said the projects would boost the country's "critical transition from an industrial economy to a knowledge-based one."

"We have passed a major hurdle in the development of the flagship applications, although we shall face many more as we progress with these groundbreaking initiatives," Mahathir added.

The MSC, a 750-square-kilometer (300-square-mile) zone outside Kuala Lumpur for computer and multimedia-related industries, is the brainchild of the premier, who wants to propel the country into the information age after steering it to the threshold of industrialization.

The area is integrated with a 3.6-billion-dollar second international airport for Kuala Lumpur to be opened in 1998 and an eight-billion-dollar new government center, Putrajaya, being built on farmland.

Othman Yeop Abdullah, chairman of the Multimedia Development Corporation set up to oversee the MSC, said a total of 29 companies had been granted MSC pioneer status, including Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Co. and US hardware manufacturer Sun Microsystems, giving them access to special incentives.

The MSC has placed Malaysia on a collision path with neighboring Singapore, which is carrying out similar efforts as both chase after the same multinational firms, investment capital and limited pool of knowledge workers.

The MSC would be bigger than the total land area of Singapore, whose 640-square-kilometer (255-square-mile) territory is now being wired into an integrated computer system linking housing estates, government agencies and private companies.

Leap

A Western diplomat noted that the MSC reflected a leap of faith by the Malaysian government, given the fact that investors do not know what the facilities would look like and where the target markets are.

Critics have also questioned Malaysia's ability to foster a hi-tech zone given the present quality of its infrastructure and its labor crunch.

Last August, a power blackout darkened the entire peninsular Malaysia for more than 16 hours, not long after Mahathir first unveiled the MSC concept.

Malaysia, which has an estimated two million foreign workers, is also woefully short of engineers and other technology-savvy workers.

The Global Competitiveness Report ranked Malaysia 28th in the world in computer literacy while placing Singapore second.

But Mahathir, who has a proven track record of transforming dreams into reality in his 16-year leadership, was quick to cast aside all doubts, saying that he "does not see any major obstacle" to the project.

"We can build, we can speed up all the infrastructure very, very quickly," the premier said.

"We are a small nation by many yardsticks, but we have big ideas and a track record of consistent achievements that allows us to do things that others find difficult," he added.

Mahathir acknowledged that the full impact of the MSC may not be immediately felt or seen but said the country now has the potential to increase its per capita income by three-to-four times by 2020.

The per capita income of the country's 21 million people in 1996 was 11, 118 ringgit ($4,447) and the figure is estimated to rise to 12, 171 ringgit this year, according to official data.

A study by Japan's Sumitomo Corp. showed that the multimedia industry in the MSC could generate an estimated $25 billion to the national economy after the first five years, Mahathir said.