Najib Says Malaysia Has a Bright Future

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak said in his New Year message on Sunday that Malaysians can look forward to a brighter economic future in 2018.

He touted his administration’s National Transformation initiatives, aimed to make Malaysia join the ranks of developed nation by 2050, as providing a roadmap of optimism for the future as well as the upbeat reports made by several international financial bodies on Malaysia’s economic growth, Bernama reported.

“Our economy beat all expectations, with the World Bank revising its estimate for our growth this year upwards not once, not twice, but three times—to a very healthy 5.8%,” he wrote in his message.

“We expect healthy growth next year and further reduction of the deficit, as we continue to take all steps necessary to build the nation and promote the safety, welfare and happiness of people,” Najib, who is also the finance minister, said.

As an example of investor confidence in Malaysia, Najib cited e-commerce giant Alibaba’s decision to launch his company’s first digital free trade zone in Malaysia as proof of the Malaysian government’s efficient and business-friendly environment created under National Transformation, or TN50, initiatives.

These investments, the new buildings, the new businesses and new infrastructure projects—from the Pan Borneo Highway to public transport such as the new MRT in the Klang Valley—will create more jobs for Malaysians, he said.

Small and medium enterprises are agile enough to adapt and use digitalization through big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things sensors and 3-D printing through all aspects of manufacturing and production.

Through these digitalization technologies, SMEs have the ability to enhance the operation of machines and devices, maneuver the movement of all material from different locations, as well as the consumption of energy by the minute.

These are the technologies involved in the Industry 4.0 initiative worldwide which include robotics and machine learning.

Industry 4.0 was created in Germany and made huge changes in machine intelligence and automation driven by software, computing power and sensor hardware.