Liew proposes for Malaysia's economic resurgence in new book

The Star

During an interview with The Star, Deputy Investment, Trade, and Industry Minister Liew Chin Tong discussed his latest book, "Second Takeoff: Strategies for Malaysia's Economic Resurgence."   This collection of essays on economics, society, and governance highlights policy suggestions aimed at unlocking Malaysia's potential for economic revival amidst the current unprecedented global shifts.  Read more at https://tinyurl.com/5n86e83n  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00So the title of this book is Second Take-Off, Strategies for Malaysia's Economic Resurgence.

00:11The idea of Second Take-Off is that there was a first take-off.

00:14This book is actually a compilation of 33 articles.

00:18We brought together 33 articles that I have published, some of them, most of the articles

00:25were published over the last year or so, since I joined MITTI in December 2022, although

00:31there were some articles which came from older times.

00:35We included one piece which I published in 2004, and there were several pieces which

00:41were published before 2018.

00:46But otherwise, most of the articles were published in the last 18 months, since the unity government.

00:54The introduction piece and the final piece, which I titled Solidarity, I think these are

01:04the two pieces which, if you are not reading anything else, at least you can try to read

01:09these two.

01:11The introduction piece, I explained the overall opportunity for Malaysia, where if we get

01:18it right this time, if we get the labour part right, if we get the technology part

01:24right, and if this nation is not just a user of technology, but we actually innovate as

01:32well, this opportunity afforded to Malaysia because of global circumstances will help

01:41us to have a second economic take-off.

01:43So that was the broad piece that I put in the introduction.

01:48In the final postscript, which I called Solidarity, I was trying to explain my personal life,

01:58what I've experienced as a kid, and also my aspiration.

02:03I want to see more Malaysians getting paid better.

02:06I want to see more Malaysians feeling economically secure.

02:11Once they feel economically secure, their children will live a better life and will

02:18be in a better cycle, in a virtuous cycle, and that will be the basis of a much better

02:28nation.

02:29So when we think of economy, I like how the Prime Minister puts it.

02:34In the modern economy framework, it is about raising the ceiling and raising the floor.

02:43We will have to consider economy in these two dimensions.

02:48That means you cannot just talk about raising growth rate without thinking of how to raise

02:53the floor.

02:54We have to do it together so that it fits back into a more secure society.

03:02Because whenever we see globally, the right-wing populism, the trouble that various developed

03:10countries are facing, they are facing a society which is insecure.

03:19The marginalised, the forgotten people, the people who are forgotten by global economy,

03:26reacted and caused right-wing populism, caused a reaction to globalisation.

03:37As a nation, we do not want to go through that, and in order not to go through that,

03:42we need to create an economic environment that builds a middle class and creates a situation

03:50where most of the people, particularly those in the middle class, do not have to fear for

03:55their economic future.

03:58What Prime Minister Dr Sri Anwar wants to do, which he articulated in the modern economic

04:07framework, coupled with NETR and the new industrial master plan, is this idea that we could engineer

04:18a second economic take-off.

04:19Again, when we go back to the 80s, there were global factors, the appreciation of yen.

04:29The global factor now is US-China conflict.

04:32The US-China conflict or competition has now created space for other countries to also

04:42create industries, or at least to have some industry that is not all concentrated in China.

04:49China is no longer seen by the US supply chain, the Western supply chain, as the factory of

04:55the world, and therefore opening up some space for countries like Malaysia, Vietnam, Mexico

05:02and many other countries.

05:03Of course, this is not easy because the conflict is more serious compared to the 80s.

05:10Managing US-China conflict is not easy for a country like us, but nonetheless, there

05:15is an opening, there is an opportunity for Malaysia.

05:19Through, as I mentioned, the modern economic framework, NETR, NIMP 2013, the whole idea

05:26is we want to graduate from the middle-income trap, so that we move to a more virtuous cycle,

05:38so that we become more productive, higher productivity, adopt a lot more technology,

05:45pay people better, pay workers better, pay Malaysian workers a lot better, and we become

05:52a much stronger economy through a virtuous cycle.

05:57In order to facilitate that, you need higher investment, you need higher technology adoption,

06:03you need to do things differently, so that perhaps is the gist of the book.

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