MATRADE: TN50 To Prepare, Complement Nation's Economic Structure After If Achieves High-Income Status By 2020

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 23 (Bernama) -- The National Transformation 2050 (TN50) roadmap will prepare and complement the Malaysia's economic structure after it achieves the high-income and developed nation status by 2020, said Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (MATRADE). Its Chief Executive Officer Dzulkifli Mahmud, said Malaysia's agenda after achieving the goals of Vision 2020 would also help local entrepreneurs and those who wanted to expand their existing market. "However, they, particularly young entrepreneurs, must hone their skills and creativity to enable them to compete fairly. "This is what the government wants from young entrepreneurs so that they would not be left behind and this can happen with the TN50," he said to Bernama. The TN50 roadmap, which was launched by Prime Minister Najib Razak recently, is a futuristic policy to map out the direction of the country for thirty years after the end of Wawasan 2020. Wawasan 2020, which was launched by former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's government, aims to make Malaysia an industrialised nation by 2020. At the launch of TN50 recently, Najib had said the digital economy would help boost Malaysia's economy to US$2 trillion (US$1 = RM4.44) within eight years from US$1.3 trillion now and this sector was dominated by the young. According to Dzulkifli, to prepare the young people for the digital economy Malaysia must have the conducive infrastructure. The government has taken the initiative, including the appointment of Alibaba Group's Chairman, Jack Ma, as adviser on digital economy, he said. Alibaba, which was set up in 199, is an e-commerce platform. It has over 46,000 employees. Its annual turnover is US$13.5 billion (RM60 billion) and has assets of about US$50.86 billion (RM226 billion). "Ma's appointment will help make world trade more 'inter-connected' and the young entrepreneurs must grab this opportunity from the government's initiative," said Dzulkifli. Meanwhile, from an academic point of view, a communications lecturer from public university of Universiti Sains Malaysia, Professor Madya Mohamad Md Yusoff, said TN50 could be realised with the preconditions that Malaysia revisited and revised its education system not only on meritocracy but industry-driven and demand-driven at large. "We response to the future marketplace of ideas and anticipating future growth potentials, like disruptive technologies, internet of things, robotics, biotechnology stem and value creation business. "We teach students on the future marketplace not the past nor the present and we should also mould our thinking process to be creative and innovative by strengthening the creative and marketing communications industry," he said. Mohamad said the digital economy was the way forward for Malaysia, whereby it was an attempt to diversify the nation's growth albeit the changing economic landscape looming on the horizon. "If (it's done) properly, we would be able to be in the top 20 countries as mentioned by the government," he added. Najib recently said that the government has set a general goal for TN50, that is for Malaysia to become a top 20 country in the world by 2050. Malaysia is currently 60th in terms of gross domestic product per capita, 47th in the Earth Happiness Index and 35th in the Global Innovation Index in various rankings by international bodies, including the World Bank. --BERNAMA