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by:
Jack M. Nilles
JALA International, Inc.
Los Angeles and Bonn, November 1999
Contact:
Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH, Oxfordstr. 2, D-53111 Bonn
Tel.: (+49 02 2) 9 85 30-0, Fax: (+49 02 28) 9 85 30-12, Email: info@empirica.com, http://www.empirica.com, http://www.ecatt.com, Contact: Werner B. Korte
8 Malaysia
8.1 The economy
Malaysia is one of the key "Asian Tigers" as a consequence of its energetic efforts to transform itself into an information age nation. Unlike its larger neighbors, Malaysia's workforce is well under way on the road to becoming an information dominant economy, as shown in Figure 25. The information sector is estimated as constituting 28% of the workforce at the end of 1998; it is expected to grow to 38% of the workforce by the end of 2003. Malaysia's GDP has had annual growth rates in the 7% to 9% range throughout the early to mid-1990s.
Figure 25: Estimated composition of the Malaysian workforce
Malaysia is heavily involved in manufacturing electronic products and has as a national goal the development of its Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) to attract leading edge technology companies in the information technology and multimedia industries as part of the government's Vision 2020 master plan. Physically, the MSC is a corridor 15 km wide and 50 km long, starting at the Kuala Lumpur City Center and ending at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. It includes the world's tallest building, with plans for two "smart cities". A variety of incentives are provided by the government to attract high tech companies to the MSC. The 20-year plan for the MSC is focused on a very high level of information infrastructure in order to serve both as a test bed and a demonstration site for new technologies. One of its stated goals is: "A world of Smart Homes, Smart Cities, Smart Schools, Smart Cards, and Smart Partnerships."
Although Malaysia's per capita GNP has almost tripled in the past decade, to an estimated 28% of that in the US by the end of 1999, it still presents some barriers to more rapid growth in the use of relatively expensive information technology. In mid-1999 a telephone call to the United States was still almost 200 times the cost of a local call. However, Internet access calls are relatively modest, consisting of an annual fee of about 6 euros and per-minute connect charges of about 0.0025 euros. The current estimate of Internet use is shown in Figure 26.
The government telecommunications department that operated the telephone network was privatised in1984, becoming Telekom Malaysia. However, the company remained a monopoly until 1 January 1999, when the Malaysian telecommunications industry was formally opened to competition. The results of the newly competitive environment should begin to become apparent within the next five years but little noticeable change is expected before yearend 2000.
Figure 26: Estimated Internet use in Malaysia
8.2 E-commerce
There is a high level of interest in e-commerce in the Malaysian government and in its resident information industries. Beginning in 1997, the government established an Inter-Agency Task Force on Electronic Commerce to develop a national strategic action plan and recommend policy initiatives on security, encryption technologies, and transaction tracking mechanisms for facilitating e-commerce. One of the key topics for discussion was the relative advantages and disadvantages to Malaysia on e-commerce vis-à-vis international trade. So far, the conclusion appears to be that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages but that the country should proceed with caution.
Figure 27: Estimated growth of electronic commerce in Malaysia
There is very little in the way of hard data concerning the overall levels of e-commerce in Malaysia. Thus, Figure 27 represents the results of the current forecasting model. Similarly, there are no data concerning the apportionment of business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce. Typically, business-to-business e-commerce represents 75% to 80% of the total volume.
8.3 New Ways to Work
Malaysia has also been involved in telework developments since the early- to mid-1990s. The earliest known telework research in Malaysia was conducted by the Technical University in Johore Bahru as an implementation pilot project, beginning in 1995.
A survey of teleworking in Malaysia was carried out by Malaysia's United Institute for New Technologies, with funding from the United Nations Development Programme. The study concluded that there were about 3.45 teleworkers per 1,000 workers in Malaysia in 1998, which translates to 30,660 for the country. The nominal estimate of the forecasting model for 1998 is 79,000 teleworkers if Malaysia were to match its potential without regard to economic issues. The model estimate, when corrected for purchasing power, is 22,000 teleworkers for Malaysia (see Figure 28). Hence, the reality depicted by the survey can be interpreted as an indication that most Malaysian teleworkers have above average incomes. The survey found that a substantial portion of the teleworkers surveyed were employed in routine data processing jobs and call center operations. Very little home-based teleworking was reported, most of it in manufacturing and the software industry. Teleworkers with professional or managerial level jobs constituted about 20% of the teleworkers.
Figure 28: Estimated number of Malaysian teleworkers
The incentives and barriers to teleworking reported by the survey were very similar to those mentioned elsewhere in the world: convenience and flexibility; greater productivity; and reduced travel time as major incentives, with setup costs; the need for face-to-face interaction; and management apprehension as the primary barr
