All eyes are on MSC-IAP the 10th...

After a long hiatus since September 2005, this week (beginning today with a reception cocktail hosted by Dato Seri Dr Jamaludin Jarjis, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation), Putrajaya (administrative capital of Malaysia) hosts a very important congregation, the10th MSC-IAP meeting, to be attended by over 30 members of an International Advisory Panel for the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC Malaysia started with the creation of an entirely new city called Cyberjaya -- in response to the United States Silicon Valley, likely) -- a project that was meant to push Malaysia into becoming one of the leading nations in the era of knowledge economy.

All eyes are on this event, and we at Pajamanation Malaysia are very much offering a close watch for its outcomes. Will this be another talk but no walk, or will real innovative solutions came out of these meetings? Or will we be satisfied with just a good Tourism Malaysia marketing event? And will we stop "kow-towing" to foreign corporations just to get them to invest a little or to sell them some real estate pieces?

Read more about this supposedly very influential and productive meeting here:

• MSC's IAP Portal @ IAP-portal.MSC.com.my
  
• BERNAMA (15may07): This Week's MSC IAP Meeting Set To Further Enhance Msia's ICT Landscape
• ZDNET (14may07): M'sian think-tank to discuss ICT policies
• BERNAMA (24apr07): MDeC Expects MSC's Revenue To Grow Higher In 2007

Check out the latest figures supplied by MDeC as published at http://iap-portal.msc.com.my/facts-figures.html

Consider these concerns:

• 1700 MSC-status companies generated ~RM11B revenue last year; only RM11B?
• MSC also contributed to 50,000 employments in the past ten years. (Only?)
  
• How many of some 1300 local-based MSC-status companies are Bumiputera-owned (not at 30% ownership, but at 50+%)?
• How much of these trades are business-to-consumer and business-to-business minus the trades involving business-to-government or government-to-government (through GLCs)?
• How much of these revenue contributed by MSC-status (foreign) MNCs?
• What's the status of telecommunications and broadband service throughout Malaysia today, more than 10 years after MSC?
• How many micro and SMEs out of the 500,000 plus active businesses in Malaysia have been ensured to be ICT-literate today? What's the percentage that have actually done any trade at all through ICT-centric medium?
• Who are the local leaders in Malaysia ICT industry? Why and How?
• Are we critically lacking our own talents that we have to rely on foreign experts on how to mold our own culture and progress? Do we not understand who we ourselves are? Are we that blind? Or have been hearing from the wrong so-called experts?
  
• Which are the most influential brands in Malaysia ICT industry today? Why?
• How's ICT training in IPTA & IPTS? The employability of the graduates?
• How does Web 2.0 affect MDEC in its MSC implementations?
• Can we name any MSC-grown companies that successfully went truly global? (not just regionally)?
  

Any answers? We'll wait...

It's good to have a nice theme like: "Taking MSC Malaysia Global: Developing the Knowledge Infrastructure & Creating Talent" but how long would it take, and how much more money is needed to actually complete this task? And what would be the measurable milestones for this mission?

The MDec chief, Dato Badlisham Ghazali said the agenda has a specific topic on talent. "When we say talent, it is not about the educational system but on how to change the CULTURE and MINDSET when looking at the 21st century skills that are required for the country's knowledge-based economy." (BERNAMA Business, 15may07)

Our ponder is, whose cultures and mindsets? And who needs to adapt to whom? The government to reflect and to take advantage of the strengths of its citizens or the other way round, i.e. the people to do exactly as what the government told them to, like it or not...?