Hakim's question; middle-income trap
I was just having my morning tea before Hakim asked me,'apa nak jadi dengan negara kita nie Fie?' I know that I am hours away from boarding the flight that is home bound, but funnily enough, I was entirely caught of guard by such a serious question. Silently I though to myself, this is definitely not the right time to do this.
Of course I do have my own views, if you know me well enough, you'd know by now that I make it an exercise for me to come up with an opinion on issues, old habits I guess.
Well anyway, just to answer Hakim's questions, two major issues were pointed out, the rise of the younger generation leaders in our country, as well as the issues pertaining to the rise of the middle class. But after giving it much thought the moment I got back in KL, it suddenly occurred to me that these two are actually inter-related. They were both borne out of the same thing, given that I am thinking of growth as following a timeline. They are both symptoms of a rising middle class nation, something of which the world has witnessed happening over the decade, for example, South Korea and China.
The rise of the middle class is becoming a very popular topic nowadays; you read about them almost everywhere and this must be attributed to the rising star of the great eastern tiger, China at the moment. Frankly speaking though, this phenomenon is also seen to be taking roots here in our country. Without realising it, the majority of Malaysian population comprises of the middle class. All of this is actually good news to us all, it means that we are actually heading into the right direction.
On the flip side of things, this is also when things can get a little bit tricky. Being in a developing country with a clear trajectory to become a developed one, we still have one more hurdle which needs to be overcome before we truly break free and get there, that is the middle income trap. The truth is, getting from a low-income to a middle-income economy is not that hard, the real challenge is to get to the next level from there.
You see, what our nation needs at the moment is to be able to do more than just being stable. We need to grow, bigger and faster because if we are not careful other economies who are smart enough to smell the opportunity would inevitably try to seize it before we do, particularly those in the our region. I have to admit, the regular economic reports do shine some positive light for our nation, yes, indeed we are experiencing growth, our industrial production growth exceeded our expectations which is good, but more has to be done, much more.
In the past few years, there has not been much huge successes that we Malaysians can really be proud of, unless if you count the Battersea project, but then again, we have only just begun on that, plus looking at it this way, owning assets abroad highlights nothing of our abilities, that is a game played by all those rich Arab nations like the Qataris and the Saudis. In times like this, I sometimes wish that if'd only we had launched a long-term mega project during the last the late 90's, perhaps by this time we would start to be able to reap some of the fruits already.
But it's okay, all hopes are not lost. Not yet, that is.
I leave the rest to you.......
Of course I do have my own views, if you know me well enough, you'd know by now that I make it an exercise for me to come up with an opinion on issues, old habits I guess.
Well anyway, just to answer Hakim's questions, two major issues were pointed out, the rise of the younger generation leaders in our country, as well as the issues pertaining to the rise of the middle class. But after giving it much thought the moment I got back in KL, it suddenly occurred to me that these two are actually inter-related. They were both borne out of the same thing, given that I am thinking of growth as following a timeline. They are both symptoms of a rising middle class nation, something of which the world has witnessed happening over the decade, for example, South Korea and China.
The rise of the middle class is becoming a very popular topic nowadays; you read about them almost everywhere and this must be attributed to the rising star of the great eastern tiger, China at the moment. Frankly speaking though, this phenomenon is also seen to be taking roots here in our country. Without realising it, the majority of Malaysian population comprises of the middle class. All of this is actually good news to us all, it means that we are actually heading into the right direction.
On the flip side of things, this is also when things can get a little bit tricky. Being in a developing country with a clear trajectory to become a developed one, we still have one more hurdle which needs to be overcome before we truly break free and get there, that is the middle income trap. The truth is, getting from a low-income to a middle-income economy is not that hard, the real challenge is to get to the next level from there.
You see, what our nation needs at the moment is to be able to do more than just being stable. We need to grow, bigger and faster because if we are not careful other economies who are smart enough to smell the opportunity would inevitably try to seize it before we do, particularly those in the our region. I have to admit, the regular economic reports do shine some positive light for our nation, yes, indeed we are experiencing growth, our industrial production growth exceeded our expectations which is good, but more has to be done, much more.
In the past few years, there has not been much huge successes that we Malaysians can really be proud of, unless if you count the Battersea project, but then again, we have only just begun on that, plus looking at it this way, owning assets abroad highlights nothing of our abilities, that is a game played by all those rich Arab nations like the Qataris and the Saudis. In times like this, I sometimes wish that if'd only we had launched a long-term mega project during the last the late 90's, perhaps by this time we would start to be able to reap some of the fruits already.
But it's okay, all hopes are not lost. Not yet, that is.
I leave the rest to you.......
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