10MP INCORPORATES BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY ELEMENTS

PUTRAJAYA, March 19 (Bernama) -- The 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP), which is
expected to be announced in June by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak,
incorporates several important elements and aspects of the Blue Ocean Strategy,
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nor Mohamed Yakcop said
Thursday.

Under the Blue Ocean Strategy, an organisation can generate high growth and
profits by creating new demand in an uncontested market space, or a "Blue
Ocean", than by competing head-to-head with other suppliers for known customers
in an existing industry.

Nor Mohamed said the Blue Ocean Strategy, which emphasised the effectiveness
of thinking out of the box, had been applied indirectly since the country
achieved independence more than 50 years ago.

"For example, we implemented the Amanah Saham Nasional; no other country has
implemented this unit trust scheme. We introduced privatisation with priority
given to bumiputeras; other countries privatised entities and sold them to
foreigners," he told reporters after closing a Blue Ocean Strategy study, here.

He said the effectiveness of the Blue Ocean Strategy was most evident when
the country faced the economic crisis in 1997 and 1998 and emerged unscathed as
the only nation which rejected financial aid from the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"Other countries had to swallow their pride and accept financial aid from
the World Bank and IMF. Malaysia resorted to thinking out of the box and seeking
formulas and rejected foreign aid and rehabilitated the economy in our own way.

"Eleven years later, when the Western countries faced a severe economic
crisis, they emulated our ways which they had criticised in the first place when
we had applied the Blue Ocean Strategy," he said.

Nor Mohamed said the strategy was most useful because modern thinking must
be applied to face the ever-intensifying challenges of globalisation,
particularly in meeting the objective to transform Malaysia into a developed
country in the next 10 years.

-- BERNAMA