 Resources
- Vision 2020 |
The
Way Forward - Vision
The following is a complete
text of the Working Paper - The Way Forward presented by
His Excellency YAB Dato' Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the
Malaysian Business Council.
The purpose of this paper is to present
before you some thoughts on the future course of our nation
and how we should go about to attain our objective of developing
Malaysia into an industrialised country. Also outlined are
some measures that should be in place in the shorter term
so that the foundations can be laid for the long journey
towards that ultimate objective.
- Hopefully the Malaysian
who is born today and in the
years to come will be the last generation of our
citizens who will be living in a country that is
called 'developing'. The ultimate objective that we should
aim for is a Malaysia that is a fully developed country
by the year 2020.
- What, you might rightly ask, is
'a fully developed country' ? Do we want to be like any
particular country of the present 19 countries that are
generally regarded as 'developed countries' ? Do
we want to be like the United Kingdom, like
Canada, like Holland, like Sweden, like
Finland, like Japan ? To be sure, each
of the 19, out of a world
community of more than 160 states, has its strengths.
But each also has its fair share of weaknesses.
Without being a duplicate of any of them we
can still be developed. We should be
a developed country in our own mould.
- Malaysia should not be developed only
in the economic sense. It must be a nation that
is fully developed along all the dimensions: economically,
politically, socially, spiritually, psychologically
and culturally. We must be fully developed in terms
of national unity and social cohesion,
in terms of our economy, in terms
of social justice, political stability, system of
government, quality of life, social
and spiritual values, national pride and
confidence.
Malaysia As A Fully Developed Country -
One Definition
- By the year 2020, Malaysia can be a united
nation, with a confident Malaysian society, infused by
strong moral and ethical values, living in a society that
is democratic, liberal and tolerant, caring, economically
just and equitable, progressive and prosperous, and
in full possession of an economy that is competitive,
dynamic, robust and resilient.
- There can be no fully
developed Malaysia until we have finally
overcome the nine central strategic challenges that have
confronted us from the moment of our birth as an independent
nation.
- The first of these is the challenges
of establishing a united Malaysian nation with a sense
of common and shared destiny. This must be a nation
at peace with itself, territorially and ethnically
integrated, living in harmony and full and fair partnership,
made up of one 'Bangsa Malaysia' with political loyalty
and dedication to the nation.
- The second is the challenge
of creating a psychologically
liberated, secure, and developed Malaysian
Society with faith and confidence in
itself, justifiably proud of what it is, of what
it has accomplished, robust enough to face
all manner of adversity. This Malaysian Society
must be distinguished by the pursuit of excellence,
fully aware of all its potentials, psychologically
subservient to none, and respected by the peoples
of other nations.
- The third challenge we have always faced
is that of fostering and developing a mature democratic
society, practising a form of
mature consensual, community-oriented Malaysian
democracy that can be a model for many developing countries.
- The fourth is the challenge
of establishing a fully moral
and ethical society, whose citizens are strong in
religious and spiritual values and imbued with the highest
of ethical standards.
- The fifth challenge that we have always
faced is the challenge of establishing a matured, liberal
and tolerant society in which Malaysians of
all colours and creeds are free to practise
and profess their customs,cultures and religious beliefs
and yet feeling that they belong to one nation.
- The sixth is the challenge of establishing
a scientific and progressive society, a society that is
innovative and forward-looking, one that is not
only a consumer of technology but also a contributor to
the scientific and technological civilisation of the future.
- The seventh challenge is the challenge
of establishing a fully caring society and a caring culture,
a social system in which society will come before self,
in which the welfare of the people will revolve
not around the state or the individual but
around a strong and resilient family system.
- The eighth is the challenge of
ensuring an economically just society. This is a
society in which there is a fair and equitable distribution
of the wealth of the nation, in which there is full
partnership in economic progress. Such
a society cannot be in place so long as there is the
identification of race with economic
function, and the identification
of economic backwardness with race.
- The ninth challenge
is the challenge of establishing
a prosperous society, with an
economy that is fully competitive, dynamic, robust and
resilient.
- We have already come a long way towards
the fulfilment of these objectives. The nine central
objectives listed need not be our order of priorities
over the next three decades. Most obviously, the priorities
of any moment in time must meet the specific circumstances
of that moment in time.
- But it would be surprising
if the first strategic challenge which
I have mentioned - the establishment
of a united Malaysian nation
- is not likely to be the
most fundamental, the most basic.
- Since much of what I will say this morning
will concentrate on economic development, let me
stress yet again that the comprehensive
development towards the developed society that we want
-however each of us may wish to define it -cannot mean
material and economic advancement only. Far from it. Economic
development must not become the be-all and the end-all
of our national endeavours.
- Since this Council
must concentrate on the issues
of economic development and economic social
justice, which for this nation must go hand in hand for
the foreseeable future, let me expand on the perception
of the central strategic challenges with regard to these
two vital objectives.
- At this point it
is well to define in greater
detail the objective of establishing
an economically just society.
- Of the two prongs of
the NEP no one is against the eradication of
absolute poverty -regardless of race, and irrespective
of geographical location. All Malaysians, whether
they live in the rural or the urban areas, whether they
are in the south, north, east or west, must be moved above
the line of absolute poverty.
- This nation must be
able to provide enough food on the table so
that not a solitary Malaysian is subjected to the
travesty of gross under-nourishment. We must provide
enough by way of essential shelter,
access to health facilities, and
all the basic essentials. A developed
Malaysia must have a wide and vigorous middle class
and must provide full opportunities for those in the bottom
third to climb their way out of the pit of relative poverty.
- The second prong, that of
removing the identification of race with major
economic function is also acceptable except
that somehow it is thought possible to achieve this without
any shuffling of position. If we want to build an equitable
society than we must accept some affirmative
action. This will mean that
in all the major and important sectors of employment,
there should be a good mix of the ethnic groups that make
up the Malaysian nation. By legitimate means we must ensure
a fair balance with regard to the professions and all
the major categories of employment. Certainly we must
be as interested in quality and merit. But we must ensure
the healthy development of a viable and robust Bumiputera
commercial and industrial community.
- A developed Malaysia should not have
a society in which economic backwardness is identified
with race. This does not imply individual income equality,
a situation in which all Malaysians will have the same
income. This is an impossibility because by sheer dint
of our own individual effort,
our own individual upbringing
and our individual preferences, we
will all have different economic worth, and will be financially
rewarded differently. An equality of
individual income as propounded
by socialists and communists
is not only not possible, it is not desirable and is a
formula for disaster.
- But I do believe that the narrowing
of the ethnic income gap, through the
legitimate provision of opportunities, through a closer
parity of social services and infrastructure, through
the development of the appropriate economic cultures and
through full human resource development, is
both necessary and desirable. We must aspire by
the year 2020 to reach a stage where no-one can say that
a particular ethnic group is inherently economically
backward and another is economically
inherently advanced. Such a situation is
what we must work for efficiently,
effectively, with fairness and
with dedication.
- "A full partnership in economic progress"
cannot mean full partnership in poverty. It must
mean a fair balance with regard to
the participation and contribution of all our ethnic
groups - including the Bumiputeras of Sabah and Sarawak
- in the high-growth, modern sectors of our
economy. It must mean a fair distribution
with regard to the control , management and ownership
of the modern economy.
- In order to achieve this economically
just society, we must escalate dramatically
our programmes for national human resource
development. There is a need to ensure the creation
of an economically resilient and fully competitive Bumiputera
community so as to be at par with the NonBumiputera community.
There is need for a mental revolution and
a cultural transformation. Much of
the work of pulling ourselves
up by our boot-straps must be
done ourselves. In working for the correction
of the economic imbalances, there has to be the
fullest emphasis on making the needed
advances at speed and with the
most productive results - at the lowest
possible economic and societal cost.
- With regard to the establishment of a
prosperous society, we can set many aspirational goals.
I believe that we should set the realistic
(as opposed to aspirational) target of almost doubling
our real gross domestic product
every t en years between 1990 and 2020 AD. If we
do this, our GDP should be about eight times larger by
the year 2020 than it was in 1990.
Our GDP in 1990 was 115 billion
Ringgit. Our GDP in 2020 should therefore be about
920 billion Ringgit in real (1990 Ringgit) terms.
- This rapid growth will require that we
grow by an average of about 7 per cent (in real terms)
annually over the next 30 years. Admittedly this
is on optimistic projection but we should set our
sights high if we are to motivate ourselves
into striving hard. We must guard against 'growth
fixation', the danger of pushing for growth figures oblivious
to the needed commitment to ensure
stability, to keep inflation low, to
guarantee sustainability, to develop our quality of life
and standard of living, and the achievement of our
other social objectives. It will
be a difficult task, with many peaks and low points.
But I believe that this can be done.
- In the 1960s, we grew by an annual
average of 5.1 per cent; in the 1970s,
the first decade of the NEP, Malaysia
grew by an average of 7.8 per cent;
in the 1980s, because of the recession years, we
grew by an annual average of 5.9 per cent.
- If we take the last thirty years,
our GDP rose annually in real terms by an
average of 6.3 per cent. If we take the last twenty years,
we grew by an annual average of 6.9 per cent. What is
needed is an additional 0.1 per cent growth. Surely if
we all pull together God willing this 0.1% can be achieved.
- If we do succeed, and assuming
roughly a 2.5 per cent annual
rate of population growth, by the year 2020,
Malaysians will be four times richer (in real terms) than
they were in 1990. That is the measure of the prosperous
society we wish and hopefully we can achieve.
- The second leg of our economic objective
should be to secure the establishment of a competitive
economy. Such an economy must be able to sustain
itself over the longer term, must be dynamic,
robust and resilient. It must mean,
among other things: A diversified and balanced economy
with a mature and widely based industrial sector, a modern
and mature agriculture sector and an efficient
and productive and an equally mature services sector;
an economy that is quick on its feet, able to quickly
adapt to changing patterns of
supply, demand and competition;
an economy that
is technologically proficient, fully able to adapt,
innovate and invent, that is increasingly technology
intensive, moving in the direction of higher and
higher levels of technology; an economy that has strong
and cohesive industrial linkages throughout the system;
an economy driven by brain-power,
skills and diligence in possession of
a wealth of information, with the knowledge
of what to do and how to do it; an economy
with high and escalating
productivity with regard to every
factor of production; an entrepreneurial
economy that is self - reliant, outward - looking
and enterprising; an economy sustained
by an exemplary work ethic, quality consciousness
and the quest for excellence; an economy characterised
by low inflation and a low cost of living;
an economy that is subjected to the full discipline and
rigour of market forces.
- Most of us in this present Council will
not be there on the morning of January 1, 2020 Not
many, I think. The great bulk
of the work that must be done to ensure a
fully developed country called Malaysia a
generation from now will obviously be done by the
leaders who follow us, by our children
and grand-children. But we should make sure
that we have done our duty in guiding them
with regard to what we should work to become. And let
us lay the secure foundations that they must build upon.
Some Key Public Sector Economic Policies
For The Forseeable Future
- Since the early 1980s, we have stressed
that this country will rely on the private sector as
the primary engine of economic growth. In a way
we were ahead of the rest of the world, even
the developed countries in entrusting
economic growth to the private sector.
- In the early years, our fledgling
private sector could not fully respond to the challenge
that was issued. Then came the unpredictable and
difficult recession and slowdown years.
However in the last three years the private sector has
bloomed and responded. The policy is now bearing fruit.
The outcome: in 1988, we grew in real terms
by 8.9 per cent; in 1989, by 8.8
per cent; in 1990, by 9.4 per cent without
expansionary budgetting by the Government. Even the tiger
economies of North East Asia have not done so well.
- No nation can afford to abandon a winning
formula. And this nation will not. For the
forseeable future, Malaysia will continue to drive the
private sector, to rely on it as the primary engine of
growth.
- In the meantime the
Government will continue to downsize of
its role in the field of economic production and
business. The State cannot of course retreat totally
from the economic life of Malaysia.
It will not abdicate its
responsibility for overseeing and providing
the legal and regulatory
framework for rapid
economic and social development.
- The Government will be pro - active to
ensure healthy fiscal and monetary management and the
smooth functioning of the Malaysian economy. It will escalate
the development of the necessary physical infrastructure
and the most conducive business environment - consistent
with its other social
priorities. And where absolutely
neccessary the Government will not
be so completly bound by its commitment to withdrawal
from the economic role, that it will not intervene. It
will play its role judiciously and actively.
- The process of de-regulation will continue.
There can be no doubt that regulations are an essential
part of the governance of society, of which the
economy is a part. A state without laws and regulations
is a state flirting with anarchy. Without order, there
can be little business and no development. What
is not required is over regulation although
it may not be easy to decide when the Government is over
regulating.
- Wisdom lies of course in
the ability to distinguish between those laws and regulations
which are productive of our societal
objectives and those that are not; and it lies in
making the right judgements with regard to the trade
- offs. Thus Governments will be neither foolish nor irresponsible,
and will cater to the needs of the wider society as well
as the requirements of rapid growth and a competitive,
robust and resilient economy. It will be guided
by the knowledge that the freeing of enterprise
too - not only laws and regulations, and
state intervention - can contribute
to the achievement of the wider social
objectives. In this light
and given the fact that
there are clear areas of
unproductive regulation which need to be
phased out, you can expect the process of productive
de- regulation to continue. The recent move of Bank Negara
to de-regulate the BLR regime is an example in point.
- Privatisation will continue to be an
important cornerstone of our national development and
national efficiency strategy. This policy
is not founded on ideological belief. It is
aimed specifically at enhancing competitiveness,
efficiency and productivity in
the economy, at reducing the administrative and financial
burdens on the Government and at expediting the attainment
of national distributional goals.
- In implementing our privatisation
policy, the Government is fully aware of the need to protect
public interest, to ensure that
the poor are provided access
to essential services, to guarantee
that quality services are provided at minimum cost,
to avoid unproductive monopolistic practices and
to ensure the welfare of workers.
- There will be problems.
No endeavour comes without a price tag. But
it is clear enough that this policy
has thus far generated positive results
and we can expect its implementation to be accelerated
in the future. With the completion of the Privatisation
Master Plan Study, I believe that many
of the bottlenecks and rigidities that obstruct the progress
of the needed privatisation will be removed, thus
accelerating its smooth implementation.
- There will be in the years ahead an Accelerated
Industrialisation Drive, a drive that is not based on
a fascination with industry but
on the simple truth that if we want to develop
rapidly -in a situation where the developed economies
will be moving out of industrialisation into
a post - industrial stage - this is
the way to go. If we are to industrialise
rapidly, we will need to capitalise on our national strengths
and forcefully tackle our weaknesses.
- In pursuit of this policy, the Government
will need to deal with the problem of a narrow manufacturing
base. In 1988, 63 per cent of
total Malaysian manufactured exports came
from the electrical and
electronic and textile industries.
Electronics alone accounted for 50 per cent
of total manufactured exports. We must diversify.
- Despite the most rapid
development in the free trade zones insignificant
demand has been generated for local intermediate products.
We will have to deal with the problem of weak industrial
linkages.
- There is inadequate development of indigenous
technology. There is too little value- added, too
much simple assembly and production. There is also
a need to counter rising production costs brought
about by rising costs of labour, raw materials
and overheads by improving efficiency and productivity.
There is a serious shortage of skilled manpower. All these
and many more issues will need to be addressed.
- Small and medium scale
industries have an important
role to play in generating employment
opportunities, in strengthening industrial
linkages, in penetrating markets and generating
export earnings. They have a crucial role as a spawning
ground for the birth of tomorrow's entrepreneurs.
- The Government will devise appropriate
assistance schemes and will seek to raise the level of
management expertise, technological know-how and skills
of the employees in this very important and in many ways
neglected sector of our economy.
- The SMIs will be one of the primary foundations
for our future industrial thrust. The Government is fully
committed to its healthiest development.
- Just as we must diversify the products
we export so must we diversify the markets we export to.
Malaysian exporters must look also at the non - traditional
markets. It will require new knowledge, new
networks, new contacts and new approaches towards
dealing with unfamiliar laws, rules and regulation. It
will be uncomfortable but it would be a mistake to consider
that it is not worth the discomfort to deal with these
markets. Alone they may be small but cumulatively the
market of the developing Asian, African and Latin America
countries are big. If the developed countries find
it worth while to export to these markets then it must
be worth while for us also. The Government will help but
the private sector must play their part. Reliance
on export- led growth is still the way to rapid growth.
- Entry into the world market pits our
companies against all comers and subjects them to the
full force of international competition. This is a challange
we must accept not simply because the domestic market
is too small but because in the long run
it will actually enrich our domestic market
and reduce our dependence on export.
- We must persist with export-led growth
despite the global slowdown, despite the rise of protectionism,
trade blocs and managed trade. When the going is tougher,
we must not turn inward. We simply have no
choice but to be more lean, more
resourceful, more productive and generally more competitive,
more able to take on the world. 56. The liberalisation
of the Malaysian economy has had beneficial result and
contributed towards a more dynamic growth.
- Obviously, liberalisation
must be undertaken responsibly
and in stages so as not
to create economic uncertainty and impose excessive
structural adjustment costs. We should take into
the fullest consideration Malaysia's capacity to undertake
liberalisation. We should not dismiss
the infant industry argument,
but we should not bow to
illegitimate pressure.
- At the same time, productive liberalisation
ensures that our private sector will be less reliant
on artificial profits and on protection,
which benefits some producers at the expense
of consumers and other producers. Infants must grow up.
They must grow up to be sturdy and strong. And this cannot
be done if they are over-protected.
- For reasons that are
obvious, the Government will
continue to foster the inflow of foreign investment.
This is essential for Malaysia's Accelerated Industrialisation
Drive. Again, we will not abandon
a winning strategy. But we
will fine-tune it to ensure that measures
are in place to ensure
that Malaysia maximises the net benefit from
the inflow of foreign investment.
- In the past, the
domestic private sector has largely
failed to meet the targets set in successive
Malaysia Plans. Apparently domestic investors feel
that the Government has not devoted
enough effort to the fostering of domestic
investment as we have devoted to those
from overseas. This is not completely true
but we will redress the situation
as we get better feed back.
- Small and medium scale enterprises must
be assisted to grow bigger. Surplus savings and
domestic capital must be more
productively channeled into
investments. Entrepreneurs must be spawned. Where necessary,
technological and training help must be extended;
and infrastructural support must be given.
- It is worthwhile to stress again
that the development that we need cannot
take place without the infrastructural underpinning. We
must keep one step ahead of demand and need. In the recent
Budget, we clearly stated what we will do in the shorter
term. The Sixth Malaysia Plan will make
clear what we will do in the
medium term while the second outline
perspective Plan will indicate
the direction over the long term. The
Government is fully aware of the infrastructure bottlenecks
and of the need for massive investments in the years to
come. We will not let growth to be retarded by excessive
congestion and investment indigestion, as has happened
in many countries.
- In our drive to move vigorously ahead
nothing is more important then the development of human
resources.
- From the experience
in the last two decades of all
the economic miracles of the countries that
have been poor in terms of "natural resources",
it is blindingly clear that the most important resource
of any nation must be the talents, skills, creativity
and will of its people. What we have between our
ears, at our elbow and in our heart is much more important
than what we have below our feet and around us.
Our people is our ultimate resource. Without a doubt,
in the 1990s and beyond, Malaysia must give the fullest
emphasis possible to the development of this ultimate
resource.
- Malaysia has one of
the best educational systems
in the Third World. But for the journey that we
must make over our second generation, new standards have
to be set and new results achieved.
- We cannot but aspire to the highest standards
with regard to the skills of our people, to their devotion
to knowhow and knowledge upgrading and
self-improvement, to their language competence,
to their work attitudes and
discipline, to their managerial
abilities, to their achievement motivation, their
attitude towards excellence and to the
fostering of the entrepreneurial spirit.
- We cannot afford to neglect the
importance of entrepreneurship
and entrepreneural development, which goes,
of course beyond training and education. We
must ensure the correct mix with regard to professionals,
sub-professionals, craftsmen and artisans, and
the correct balance with
regard to those with competence
in science and technology, the a rts
and social sciences.
- In the development of human resources
we cannot afford to neglect half the population i.e. the
Bumiputeras. If they are not brought into the mainstream,
if their potentials are not fully developed, if they are
allowed to be a milestone around the national neck, then
our progress is going to be retarded by that much.
No nation can achieve full progress with only half its
human resources harnessed. What may be considered
a burden now can, with the correct attitude and management
be the force that lightens our burden and hasten our progress.
The Bumiputeras must play their part fully
in the achievement of the national goal.
- Inflation is the bane
of all economic planners.
Fortunately except during the first
oil shock when inflation went up to
17%, Malaysia has managed to keep inflation
low. We must continue to keep
it low. The Government, the business
sector, and the people must be
committed to keeping it
low. The only real way to combat
inflation is to live within
one's means. If we cannot
afford we just don't buy. In Malaysia
this is possible for we can
produce practically all we need
in terms of food, shelter and
clothing. When recently we had
a recession, life was bearable
because we were able to buy our
needs at roughly the same price
i.e. we had practically no
inflation. Now that we have more money, demand
pull is slowly forcing prices up. So
although we may be more
prosperous now, although we may
be financially wealthier now, but
in terms of purchasing power we are
not as well-off as we should be.
- The public must understand
what causes inflation and must
be disciplined enough to combat it . In some
countries when inflation rates go
up to thousands of per cent per
year, Governments have been changed
again and again without
inflation being contained. The reason is that the
people are not disciplined and
prepared to restrain themselves. No Government can put a
stop to inflation unless the people are prepared
to accept the discomfort of austerity.
- In the fight against
inflation nothing is more effective
than education and discipline among
the people.
- In an interdependent
trading world, the exchange rate plays
a vital role. Too cheap a currency will
increase import bills and debt
payment but it will make
exports competitive. But the full benefit
of a low exchange rate on export
can be negated by the cost of imported material
which go into the exported products. A high currency value
will "enrich" our people, particularly in
terms of buying imported luxuries but
our exports will not be competitive
and the economy will eventually
be adversely affected.
- Clearly the management
of the exchange rate is
of extreme importance to the progress
of our nation. There is only a
limited ability to manipulate.
In the final analysis it
is how we balance our trade that will
determine how our currency is
valued. Malaysia must learn to
be competitive through higher
productivity rather than through manipulating
exchange rates. Again the people
must understand their role,
particularly with regard to productivity.
- In a world of
high technology Malaysia cannot
afford to lag behind. We cannot be in the front
line of modern technology but we must always
try to catch up at least in those fields
where we may have certain advantages.
We have already adopted a National
Plan of Action for Industrial Technology
Development. This is the easy part. We must now proceed
expeditiously to the enormously difficult task of implementation.
- The Government will certainly provide
the necessary commitment and
leadership to this national endeavour. The
institutional and support infrastructure
will be put in place to ensure rapid,
realistic, focussed and market - driven
development of our technological
capabilities. But let us
never forget that technology is
not for the laboratory but
the factory floor and the market. The
private sector and our people must respond.
Far too often the results
of research are ignoured in favour of the
tried and tested moneyspinners.
It has been said that
the secret of Japan's
success is its skill in applying research
results to marketable products. If
we don't do this we are going to be left behind
whatever may be the level of our technology.
- While increasing our
industrial manufacturing sector, Malaysia
must make sure that our agriculture and services
sector will not be neglected. We must advance. We
must strive for efficiency, modernity and
competitiveness. These should be the key guiding
principles of our national policy
towards agriculture, tourism
and the fullest development of the entire
services sector.
- Nor can we afford to neglect
the rural sector of our economy and society. In the years
ahead, we must work for a second rural
development transformation, restructuring
the villages so as to be compatible
with both agriculture and modern industry. Less and less
farmers should produce more and more food,
thus releasing manpower for an industrial society.
- While doing all these
we must also ensure that our valuable natural
resources are not wasted. Our land must remain productive
and fertile, our atmosphere clear and clean, our
water unpolluted, our forest resources capable
of regeneration, able to yield the needs of
our national development. The
beauty of our land must not be desecrated - for
it s own sake and for our economic advancement.
- In the information age that
we are living in the Malaysian society must be information
rich. It can be no accident that
there is today no wealthy, developed country that
is information -poor and no information-rich country that
is poor and undeveloped.
- There was a time
when land was the most
fundamental basis of prosperity and
wealth. Then came the second wave,
the age of industrialisation. Smokestacks rose
where the fields were once cultivated.
Now, increasingly, knowledge will not only
be the basis of power
but also prosperity. Again we
must keep up. Already
Malaysians are among the biggest
users of computers in the
region. Computer literacy is a
must if we want to progress
and develop. No effort must be spared
in the creation of an information rich Malaysian society.
- In international relations, the emphasis
should be less on politics and ideology but more on
economic imperatives. Small though
we may be we must strive to influence
the course of international trade. To grow
we have to export. Our domestic market is far too small.
It is important to us that free trade is maintained. The
trend towards the form ation of trading blocs will
damage our progress and we must
oppose it. We must therefore
play our part and not passively
accept the dictates of those
powerful nations who may not even notice what their
decision have done to us.
- A country without
adequate economic defence
capabilities and the ability
to marshall influence and create
coalitions in the international
economic arena is an economically
defenceless nation and an
economically powerless
state. This Malaysia cannot afford to be.
- There are many other policies that must
be in place if we are to make the 1990s the most
economically productive decade in
our history.Let me end by mentioning just one more: the
necessity of making Malaysia Incorporated a flourishing
reality.
- Let me stress not all
collaboration between our public and private sector
is justifiable or productive. In many
areas there must be a long arm's length approach.
But there can be no doubt
that a productive partnership will take
us a long way towards our aspirations.
What The Private Sector Must Contribute
- I have outlined
what I think are the key
economic policies that should be in place to accelerate
our drive towards prosperity and a competitive
economy. Let me now stress the role that the private sector
must play.
- This nation cannot
rely on the private sector
as the primary engine of growth if our private sector
is inefficient and lethargic. You must be strong
and dynamic, robust and self-reliant, competent
and honest.
- Malaysia cannot
deregulate if bankers eventually
behave like banksters, if the freedom
afforded to enterprise becomes merely
licence to exploit without any
sense of social responsibility. Our companies must
have a high sense of corporate duty. Our struggle
to ensure social justice - to uplift
the position and competitiveness
of the Bumiputeras and to achieve the other social
objectives - must be your struggle too.
- Privatisation must not
proceed if its objectives are defeated by
those who think only of personal profit
without social responsibility.
The Accelerated Industrialisation Drive and
the attempt to rapidly develop our
small and medium scale industries
must be driven by the
enterprise of our entrepreneurs. They
must be prepared to think
longer term, to venture forth
into the competitive world
markets. The attraction of foreign investment
should not be the responsibility
of the Government alone. The private
sector too must engage the foreign investor
in mutually beneficial partnership and joint
ventures for this will help him to integrate
more fully into the Malaysian
economy. And the responsibility of domestic
investors must be greater
than that of their foreign
counter - parts because Malaysia
is our country, not theirs. We
can ask ourselves to make a sacrifice for our
country but we cannot expect foreigners to do it for us.
- In the development of our human resources,
our private sector has the most important of roles to
play. Train your own manpower. Equip them for their changing
tasks. Look after their interests. Upgrade their skills.
Manage them well. And reward them for their contribution.
- There is obviously
a lot for everyone to do. Unfortunately
there is no simple one shot formula
for developing a nation. Many, many things must
be done by many, many people. And they
must be done as correctly as possible. We must be prepared
to be self-critical and to be willing to make corrections.
But God Willing we can succeed.
Source
: Prime Minister's Office, Malaysia.
Date
: 28 February 1991
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