NEW YORK – Among the reasons Malaysia lost out on major business opportunities over the decades was due to poor infrastructure, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Even though Malaysia had physical infrastructure when it started the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in 1996, the prime minister said the country missed out on parallel software development.
“What was lacking, I remember Michael Dell telling me, that it was good that Malaysia had this infrastructure but focused on software.
“And Bill Gates, in those days, mentioned the same thing, you had focused on infrastructure but you must focus on software.
“Unfortunately, we did not and we lost out to Bangalore (in India), Singapore, and other countries,” he told the audience during a question-and-answer session at the Invest Malaysia forum here today.
He added that the government has to accept its strengths and weaknesses, and move forward courageously to improve on that.
“With embarking on clear policies, we will be able to attract (more investments). We have to address concerns of clarity of policies and ease of doing business.
“We can deal with it. There is no reason Malaysia cannot be prepared to address that.”
Earlier, in his keynote address titled “Regaining Malaysia’s Lead in Asia”, Anwar said the thrust of the new administration is to look into issues of governance, which includes the ease of doing business, clarity of policies and ridding the country of the many negative impacts that stem from corrupt practices.
MSC Malaysia was one of the initiatives included in Vision 2020 – a brainchild of then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
It was supposed to accelerate the objectives of Vision 2020 and marketed to digital companies by offering temporary tax breaks and high-speed internet access.
Anwar is currently in New York to attend the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. – September 22, 2023