The year-end habitually brings upon several routine compulsions for many of us; chief among them are resolutions for the year ahead and spring cleaning, both at home and at the workplace.
Since I have practically given up on making new resolutions — recycling previous years’ ones seem more environment-friendly — spring cleaning is what I attempt to embark on come end of the year. With papers spilling over my document trays and the work desk drawers filled with outdated media statements and corporate folders, I did not have much choice.
Over the last three years since being posted here in Putrajaya, I had limited opportunity to clean up my desk. Procrastination aside, it is understandable considering that the local media’s bureau offices over here are required to cover the news and updates of over 25 ministries and more than 50 government agencies housed in the federal administrative centre.
My latest round of onslaught on the possibly hazardous clutter on my desk unearthed stacks of old media tags, many of them from the extensive number of regional and international leaders’ visits to Malaysia over the last few years.
The heap depicted landmark events involving the names of globally-prominent leaders such as British Prime Minister David Cameron, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and, of course, crowd favourite United States President Barack Obama.
As I dusted off those tags and read over the headings, a sense of pride hit me. At 58 years old, relatively young for a nation when compared with our more developed peers, Malaysia has, in fact, done commendably well with the never-ending visits by these international leaders to further strengthen bilateral ties with us.
Be they government-to-government cooperation, bilateral meetings on economic collaborations, joint infrastructure development, education exchange, or to establish multitudes of memoranda of understanding between government agencies and corporate entities, we continue to draw in the international community.
This year, in particular, was a busy period for Putrajaya-based journalists and media representatives, as the government played host to an endless stream of foreign dignitaries, topped off by the recently- concluded 27th Asean Summit and Related Summits, where leaders from 18 countries including China, Japan, Russia, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand were present. It was indeed a landmark occasion as the event signed off with the introduction of the much-awaited Asean Economic Community (AEC), effective Jan 1, 2016. With a 625-million population offering a potential market of US$2.6 trillion (RM11 trillion), the AEC is projected to be the world’s seventh-largest economic region, even surpassing the European Union.
Over the years, we have steadily grown to become amongst the most successful nations around the region in attracting foreign direct investments (FDI). Undoubtedly, the nation’s principle of neutrality and non-alignment while maintaining pro-business policies has made the country a preferred investment destination.
According to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the country’s net FDI inflows for the first nine months of this year rose by more than 5.8 per cent to RM27 billion, compared with RM25.6 billion in the corresponding period last year. Realised private investments amounted to RM159.4 billion, or 8.4 per cent higher than the RM147 billion recorded in the same period last year, with the leading sources of foreign investments coming from Hong Kong, Japan, the United States, Singapore and China.
The World Bank also recently ranked Malaysia at 18th position out of the 189 economies in its well-regarded Doing Business Report. Being amongst the top 20 economies in the world — ahead of Switzerland, France, Japan, United Arab Emirates, China and India — with the most business-friendly regulations, speaks volumes for us particularly amidst the challenging economic environment. This latest feat corresponded with Bloomberg’s earlier rating of Malaysia as the world’s fifth most promising emerging market this year, making us the only Asean country in its top 10.
The country, through its economic policies and national initiatives, has successfully attracted more than 5,000 companies from more than 40 countries to set up shop on our shores.
Based on my encounters with various industry leaders and heads of multinational corporations during their official visits to Putrajaya, our business-friendly environment, educated and multilingual workforce, impressive logistics connectivity and world-class infrastructure enabled us to stand out from many of our neighbouring countries.
While as a nation we have leveraged on natural resources and inexpensive labour resources to provide us a firm foothold to compete during our initial growing-up years, the government has recognised the need for us to look elsewhere to remain competitive in the near future and for the long term.
We have effectively evolved from an agriculture-based economy to a high-technology manufacturing-based nation today, fronted by an information and communications technology-ready and knowledge-driven population.
Beyond our technology advancements and infrastructure progress, many delegates at the recent Asean Summit expressed their admiration for our country’s economic and government transformation initiatives.
This follows a number of requests in recent years from other countries, including from some African nations and Colombia, keen to learn and find out more about our government policies and implementation of national initiatives, particularly pertaining to the Economic Transformation Programme and the Government Transformation Programme.
In short, amid the sporadic political bickering on the domestic front and the often exaggerated public trepidations faced by our society, the fact remains that Malaysia continues to be an important participant on the international arena.
While I will definitely be throwing out bundles of unwanted stuff from my workstation during this round of spring cleaning, those prized media tags will not be among them, as they remind me of what our country has achieved in the past, and can continue to do in the years ahead.
The writer is NST’s Putrajaya bureau chief