JEDDAH, 21 February 2005 — The first session of day two at the Jeddah Economic Forum by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, prime minister of Malaysia, set the stage for the day by presenting the Malaysian experience in human resource development, the theme of the day and of the forum as a whole.
By giving a brief background on the stages of the Malaysian human capital transformation and the outline for the basis of its financial investment and strategic development of the infrastructure, Badawi presented a plan that proved successful and exceeded expectations for the Malaysian economic progress. His main focus though was the importance of quality education as the foundation for human development.
Badawi stated that Malaysia’s obsession with human capital formation and human resource development was only put in place in the early 1990s. Before that, as a newly independent nation, there were other priorities that had to be implemented, which are peace and security. At that time Malaysia was in turmoil, the average annual rate of economic growth was 3.5%, barely able to keep pace with the rate of population growth, it manufactured practically nothing, infrastructure was non-existent, and illiteracy and birth rate high.
The World Bank predicted that Malaysia would have a medium to long-term sustained average annual rate of growth of 3.5%. However, from 1969 onward things began to change in Malaysia as a result of determined national leadership, and since then it has had a sustainable annual rate of 7%.
“I say all this in order to stress not only that development is a difficult process but also to stress that development is not a ‘one size fit all’ proposition,” said Badawi. This does not mean that countries cannot learn from the experience of others, but each has to devise its own unique winning formula to grow and develop, advised Badawi. Nevertheless, Badawi emphasized the importance of human resource development.
Malaysia’s vision 2020 states that the most important resource of any nation must be the talents, skills, creativity and will of its people. In the 1990s, Malaysia gave its fullest emphasis on developing its ultimate resource, its people. Ten years later, as it entered the new millennium, Malaysia adopted the ‘Knowledge-based economy master plan’ which they called their ‘Strategic initiative one of the 21st century’.
“This initiative is aimed at transforming a largely input-driven production-based economy into a productivity-driven knowledge-intensive economy,” said Badawi. The single most important element of this plan is the accumulation and development of the human resources necessary to make the jump. The reason for this focus, according to Badawi, is because the post-industrial economies are strongest in service and in high value-added services. “Quality and high-value output is the result of thinking and planning, execution and implementation by smart people,” said Badawi. Therefore, what is needed to provide high quality service is people who are truly knowledgeable, creative, innovative and energetic.
This is where quality education comes into play. “Malaysia’s strategists, planners and implementers have had no choice but to be tightly focused on where the action promises the highest returns,” said Badawi. He explained that a national program for human capital formation and human resource development can be super-efficient and over productive at low cost but can be a disaster if what is being produced is not what is needed. For Malaysia, they want to produce a world-class workforce that is employable, empowered and disciplined, able to adjust to changing work needs, with a commitment to life-long learning.
He listed some criteria for this workforce including English competence. “Improving the education of our people and eradicating poverty are among Malaysia’s most important strategies today,” said Badawi. Among the key steps taken is the establishment of a human resource development fund to finance workers keen on acquiring skills and offer incentives to companies wishing to invest in training their staff.
Badawi called on all the Muslim world to have careful and effective human resource development and stronger poverty alleviation measures and to help each other, which is the goal of his initiative for the capacity building program in the Organization of Islamic Conference. “It is my belief that enhanced capacity is a key step in our journey toward greater unity, dignity and progress of the Ummah,” concluded Badawi.
At the press conference that followed, Badawi answered questions on community harmony in Malaysia, and he said that despite some disturbances, there is harmony because the government has a policy of equal rights to everyone.
In response to a question on the effects of Tsunami, Badawi said that it only had minor effect on the Malaysian economy but there were some areas of the country that were damaged but due to immediate action by the government, it was able to rectify the situation.
