ID :
186602
Mon, 06/06/2011 - 06:49
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/186602
The shortlink copeid
LID, THE INSPIRATION FOR AFRICAN COUNTRIES
KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama) – The Langkawi International Dialogue (LID) has helped African countries adopt national visions along the lines of Malaysia's Vision 2020, inspiring them to develop their country further.
LID has paved the path for least developed countries (LDC) to emulate exemplary initiatives undertaken by Malaysia to reach its current development status, said former Science Advisor to the Prime Minister Dr. Omar Abdul Rahman.
He said as a result of discussions and sharing of experiences by Malaysia in pursuing Vision 2020 objectives, African nations saw the crucial importance of a national vision to spur development.
"If we want to develop nationally, we must have a vision of what we want to be, and that is how Vision 2020 came about, and now almost every country in Southern Africa has a national vision," he told Bernama in an interview Monday.
He said some of these countries might have visions looking at 2016, some till 2013, but it is still all about what the country aspires to be in a period of time based on Malaysia's Vision 2020.
"People in Africa had always looked at Malaysia as a beacon of exemplary initiatives which they can learn. Through smart partnerships that the Commonwealth Partnership for Technology Management (CPTM) has maintained in running, we can get the right people to come together and work towards a common objective," he said.
As the CPTM Chairman, Omar said the idea of working together for a
smart outcome eventually became a smart partnership for parties involved and subsequently transformed into the smart partnership movement.
"What has happened in between of dialogues is that CPTM has kept the smart partnership movement going strong, and CPTM is continuing its activity to help LDCs to tackle issues that have cropped up out of the various dialogues," he said.
He said the approach to achieving national vision must be inclusive and that's why Malaysia had always advocated the smart partnership concept all along.
"The activities of CPTM is to help these countries develop and implement national vision for themselves. Smart partnership is inclusive in which everybody must believe in what they are doing towards achieving an outcome," he said.
Furthermore, Omar said when Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz introduced the term "financial inclusion" in 2007 in CPTM dialogues, it drew the attention of African states to delve into the all-encroaching financing aspects towards development of a country's economy.
"If a country desires to propel further development, it needs suitable financing for various activities beyond just micro financing, and financial inclusion is one that extends financing to enterprises across all levels," he said.
However, Omar said the stumbling blocks of all these initiatives would be the absence of quality and standards regularisation.
"The next thing CPTM is excited about is the quality and standards
inclusion, where everybody, no matter big or small, have to ensure whatever they do has the quality that matches with the standards approved.
"We have Standards Malaysia and we have been helping least developed countries to extend this quality and standards idea to products, services and businesses," said Omar.
He said that business was the basis of trading and, the quality and
standards was definitely important no matter whether one was building airplanes or baking cakes to sell," he said.
Moving forward, he said that based on the interest of Malaysia towards innovation, CPTM was getting the ball rolling by drawing attention and interest on innovation inclusion.
"We are trying to get everybody to think about not just doing things the way you do things normally but to think about how you can do things better and with innovation inclusion, it means shaping everything to be better from the bottom to the top," he said.
These four initiatives - vision, financial inclusion, quality and standards, and innovation, may seemingly look straightforward "but these are the fundamentals that a country needs to propel itself to new heights.
LID has paved the path for least developed countries (LDC) to emulate exemplary initiatives undertaken by Malaysia to reach its current development status, said former Science Advisor to the Prime Minister Dr. Omar Abdul Rahman.
He said as a result of discussions and sharing of experiences by Malaysia in pursuing Vision 2020 objectives, African nations saw the crucial importance of a national vision to spur development.
"If we want to develop nationally, we must have a vision of what we want to be, and that is how Vision 2020 came about, and now almost every country in Southern Africa has a national vision," he told Bernama in an interview Monday.
He said some of these countries might have visions looking at 2016, some till 2013, but it is still all about what the country aspires to be in a period of time based on Malaysia's Vision 2020.
"People in Africa had always looked at Malaysia as a beacon of exemplary initiatives which they can learn. Through smart partnerships that the Commonwealth Partnership for Technology Management (CPTM) has maintained in running, we can get the right people to come together and work towards a common objective," he said.
As the CPTM Chairman, Omar said the idea of working together for a
smart outcome eventually became a smart partnership for parties involved and subsequently transformed into the smart partnership movement.
"What has happened in between of dialogues is that CPTM has kept the smart partnership movement going strong, and CPTM is continuing its activity to help LDCs to tackle issues that have cropped up out of the various dialogues," he said.
He said the approach to achieving national vision must be inclusive and that's why Malaysia had always advocated the smart partnership concept all along.
"The activities of CPTM is to help these countries develop and implement national vision for themselves. Smart partnership is inclusive in which everybody must believe in what they are doing towards achieving an outcome," he said.
Furthermore, Omar said when Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz introduced the term "financial inclusion" in 2007 in CPTM dialogues, it drew the attention of African states to delve into the all-encroaching financing aspects towards development of a country's economy.
"If a country desires to propel further development, it needs suitable financing for various activities beyond just micro financing, and financial inclusion is one that extends financing to enterprises across all levels," he said.
However, Omar said the stumbling blocks of all these initiatives would be the absence of quality and standards regularisation.
"The next thing CPTM is excited about is the quality and standards
inclusion, where everybody, no matter big or small, have to ensure whatever they do has the quality that matches with the standards approved.
"We have Standards Malaysia and we have been helping least developed countries to extend this quality and standards idea to products, services and businesses," said Omar.
He said that business was the basis of trading and, the quality and
standards was definitely important no matter whether one was building airplanes or baking cakes to sell," he said.
Moving forward, he said that based on the interest of Malaysia towards innovation, CPTM was getting the ball rolling by drawing attention and interest on innovation inclusion.
"We are trying to get everybody to think about not just doing things the way you do things normally but to think about how you can do things better and with innovation inclusion, it means shaping everything to be better from the bottom to the top," he said.
These four initiatives - vision, financial inclusion, quality and standards, and innovation, may seemingly look straightforward "but these are the fundamentals that a country needs to propel itself to new heights.
