The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Win-win situation in the development of Rubber City near Malaysia-Thai border
- Genovasi way to the next level
- Merchantrade sets new target
| Win-win situation in the development of Rubber City near Malaysia-Thai border Posted: 10 Sep 2012 06:49 PM PDT THE latest joint-effort between two of the world's largest rubber producers Malaysia and Thailand to develop a "Rubber City" near Kedah-Thai border must be applauded and is certainly a move in the right direction. Apart from just being big natural rubber producers prone to the volatile nature of the commodity price movement, these two countries are taking giant steps to possibly develop large-scale rubber and rubber-based industries. Malaysia currently is the largest rubber gloves producer, commanding over 60% of the total global demand while Thailand is world-renowned as the producer of many internationally branded automobile tyres. More interestingly, the Malaysian Government will be seeking the assistance of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to lead the study on the Rubber City joint-proposal and identify suitable projects for implementation. The choice was most apt as Dr Mahathir has been known to be a vocal and ardent supporter of the rubber industry and has given his advice on the growth of the industry over the past decades. Hewill be delivering a keynote address on "Vision for the Rubber Industry" at the International Rubber Technology and Economic Conference in KL next month. As pointers, Malaysia also has well-known rubber authorities such as the Malaysian Rubber Board and the Malaysian Rubber Export Promotion Council which would be most willing to impart their skills in R&D and marketing experience in rubber-related products for the proposed Rubber City. Thailand has the labour strength and consistent supply of natural rubber - the main raw material for making many various types of rubber-based products. Both countries could harness and share their capabilities and resources into making the "Rubber City" proposal a success. From another aspect, the efforts towards the development a large-scale rubber and rubber industry-based development could be considered to be a way to protect the livelihood of rubber smallholders who are dependent on the commodity. As many would know, rubber is synonymous with a rubber smallholder's crop. In fact, smallholders in many rubber producing countries contributed over 90% of the total rubber production. Via the development of various rubber-related industries in Kedah, both smallholders from Malaysia and Thailand would be able to get good remunerative prices for their rubber, hence providing an uninterrupted supply of the raw material to these manufacturing facilities. Malaysia is fast becoming an importer of natural rubber and dependent on Thailand and Indonesia for supply. Malaysia is currently not producing enough natural rubber to cater to its booming rubber-based manufacturing industries such as rubber gloves, medical gloves and other latex-based health services products. Furthermore, the rubber industry in Malaysia is important in the development of the national economy and providing opportunities for an estimated 300,000 smallholders. The implementation of the Malaysian Rubber Industry Strategies and the inclusion of the industry as one of the National Key Economic Area projects is expected to stimulate further growth of the industry.
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| Genovasi way to the next level Posted: 10 Sep 2012 06:40 PM PDT KUALA LUMPUR: As the Asean region bustles with development and economic activity, Malaysia is latching onto the momentum and continues to seek ways for further nation development. One of the initiatives most recently announced was Genovasi, an initiative launched early August by the Prime Minister to produce innovation ambassadors who will have the competency to innovate. The ambassadors, somewhat like students, go through a structured programme to pick up skills to innovate and bring it back to the workforce to be applied to real jobs. Genovasi was established by Unit Inovasi Khas (UNIK), a unit under the Prime Minister's Department, last month. UNIK chief executive Datuk Kamal Jit Singh says that Genovasi is a way to address the shortage of innovative minds in multi-national companies (MNCs). "We will be collaborating with all MNCs because one of the key things that they require is skilled people. That is what they are crying out for," Kamal told StarBiz. He said talent was one thing Malaysia had advantage over lower cost countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and China. "We have the hard skills. We've got the common soft skills. What Genovasi is meant for is to build the next level of skills the MNCs require." Kamal explained that MNCs had the demand for innovative talents while Genovasi was the supply side of these coveted talents. "Currently there isn't a place in Malaysia where you can go and say you want to learn to innovate. Genovasi is filling a gap in the market," he noted. He added that the initiative aimed to promote innovative thinking among youths. "When we are dealing with our juniors we often tell them that they need to think out of the box. But how do they do that? That's the gap Genovasi fills." Aside from MNCs, Kamal said that innovation skills were important to local companies and SMEs as well. "MNCs really need innovation skills, that's given, but if the SMEs hope to move up the value chain and meet the needs of the customers, many of which are MNCs, then they would need the same skills," he said. To this, Kamal pointed out that many SMEs, because they were run by the older generation, were somewhat resistant towards innovation. "A lot of the people operating the shops and smaller enterprises are senior and do not seek new ways of doing things or respond to changes well. That hampers innovation," he said. Kamal added that through innovation, businesses could run more efficiently thus creating a direct impact on the local economy. "When we talk about the Economic Transformation Programme, it is completely driven by the private sector. If the private sector wants to move up, it has to innovate. It needs people who can innovate," he said, adding that Genovasi could upskill the people so that they could innovate for the private sector and create new products and services that would lend to direct economic impact. "Part of that training will include applying the skills to a practical project so that they know how to transfer that skills to their work," Kamal further explained, noting that innovating was a structured approach, "nothing is left to chance in innovation." The Genovasi initiative, which Kamal described as a boutique academy, includes partnerships with institutions like Germany's Hasso-Plattner Institute and Stanford University for their expertise in innovative learning to teach participants the skills and methodologies. In his announcement, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said that Genovasi would produce at least 5,000 innovation ambassadors over the next five years, with 1,000 at end of next year. Genovasi will be open to working adults as well as university students and will start recruiting its first batch of ambassadors at the beginning of next year. There will be three tracks for the participants to learn innovative skills community-centric projects benefiting the society, economic-focused projects and government-enhancement projects. |
| Posted: 10 Sep 2012 06:35 PM PDT KUALA LUMPUR: Mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) and remittance service provider Merchantrade Asia Sdn Bhd targets to increase its market share to 30% in three years with the launch of Doowit, a mobile remittance service focusing on the foreign workers market. Managing director Ramasamy Veeran said he expected Merchantrade's market share in money transfer for the migrant workforce to increase from the current 10% to 30%, with collections valued at RM3.5bil, within three years. "56 agents have already signed up. We are going to roll-out 200 (cash-in-agents) by the end of the year and 700 agents within the next 24 months," he said after the launch. Currently, Merchantrade has 64 branches nationwide which make transactions valued at close to RM1.5bil. "Doowit offers remittance payouts to nine countries Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Pakistan, Vietnam, Myanmar, the Philippines and Sri Lanka," he said, adding that company would extend the service to China in another one month. The service is available to Merchantrade's 300,000 prepaid mobile service subscribers, supported by Celcom Axiata Bhd. Merchantrade expects its subscriber base to double with the introduction of Doowit. Ramasamy added that the new service would be able to strengthen customer loyalty thus reducing churn. Going forward, Celcom Axiata chief executive officer Datuk Seri Shazalli Ramly said there was a possibility for the two companies to work on expanding the mobile remittance service to overseas so that users could remit money to their families in Malaysia. He said: "If this (service) is proven to be very successful, the idea of expanding this outside Malaysia is almost obvious." Shazalli said the synergy formed between the two companies could ride on Axiata Group Bhd's network which covered Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and Singapore. |
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