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| Sunday, 29 May 2005 |
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Dr. Mahathir Mohamad spells out formula for success by Surekha Galagoda Confidence, hard work and political stability have helped Malaysia become a developed state. "You can do anything if you put your heart and soul to it," said former Prime Minister of Malaysia Dr. Mahathir Bin Mohamad giving the keynote address on the theme "Beyond Existing Frontiers" at the Business meeting organised by BOI on Thursday. He said that when Malaysia gained independence after 400 years of colonial rule the people had an inferiority complex in that they could not do anything better than their colonial masters. The leaders had to reassure the people that Malaysians could do better than the Europeans. We had to learn lessons; we not only looked West but also to the East specially at countries such as Japan and China. After World War Two they developed by leaps and bounds because they faced the challenge. Our country studied the work ethics of these two countries and applied them to our country. We wanted our people to work hard and diligently. When Malaysia gained independence unemployment was a problem. If we gave one acre to a farmer it would solve one person's unemployment but if we built factories in the same space it would solve the problem of several people. Therefore to purely solve the problem of unemployment we invited foreign investors with labour intensive industries to invest in Malaysia. "We did not want money or taxes for the government we wanted to solve the problem of unemployment and we did it," he said. Then we wanted to industrialise the country to add value to our products and earn foreign exchange. Since our country is small our market is small and therefore we had to cater to the demands of the world market. Now our trade is US$200 billion a year. In addition we encouraged our people to undertake challenges and now Malaysians are confident to take up any challenge, Dr. Mohamad said. Another lesson we learnt from the East is developing a close relationship between the government and the private sector which is essential for the development of the country. He said that democracy is not a panacea for all problems and no politician can do any meaningful work in one term and added that Malaysians were kind to give him 22 years to develop the country to its present status. Dr. Mohamad hoped that Sri Lanka and Malaysia could work and prosper together as the Malaysian policy is prosper thy neighbour. Chairman Director General of BOI Saliya Wikramasuriya said that Sri Lanka exports gems, tea, seafood, and tyres while we import fabrics, edible oil, milk and cream. Over the years the trade imbalance has increased from a deficit of Rs. 11,721 million to Rs. 25,005 million in 2003. In investments Malaysia has been prominent in telecommunications. At present there are 12 companies in commercial operation, three awaiting to start operations, seven in the process of implementation while two projects have been approved and waiting for the agreement to be signed with the BOI. Industry, Investment Promotion and Tourism Minister Anura Bandaranaike
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