KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 19 — Malaysia’s work ethic trails behind developed nations in the region as it did not adopt the culture from those it sought to emulate previously, the former head of Malaysia’s industry group for manufacturers said.
Tan Sri Saw Choo Boon, the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers’ (FMM) immediate past president, said work ethic is an important factor to boost productivity as work performance would be tied to the workers’ mindset.
“If you look at developed countries in Asia, I think we are behind them in terms of work ethic, in terms of pride in doing one’s job. I guess this is an area we must cultivate.
“Many years ago the government introduced the ‘Look East Policy’, which is a very good policy, we have learnt many things. Unfortunately, we did not import their work ethic,” he said when speaking at an event here.
The Look East policy was introduced by then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the 1980s, with Malaysia told to look to Japan and South Korea as role models.
Saw did not specify which country he was referring to.
Saw was among four other panelists — which also included Malaysia Productivity Council director-general Datuk Mohd Razali Hussain, Economic Planning Unit deputy director-general (macro) Datuk Yogeesvaran Kumaraguru, World Bank Malaysia lead economist Dr Julio Revilla — at a discussion after the launch of the World Bank’s 15th Malaysia Economic Monitor report titled “The Quest for Productivity Growth”.
The report today identified four drivers of productivity, namely education, efficiency, infrastructure and innovation.
It also provided several recommendations to boost Malaysia’s productivity levels, including better training programmes to overcome skills mismatch in the labour market; keeping the high quality of infrastructure; building innovation capacity by strengthening the research and design ecosystem and facilitating technology absorption.
Raising the female labour force participation, as well as reviewing policies that hamper competition and further opening up markets to allow for further participation locally from foreign industry players would also help increase productivity, the report said.
Saw said innovation should be cultivated through the use of broad-based incentives instead of through project-based measures, adding that project-based incentives that would sometimes involve subsequent reimbursement would be unsuitable for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The government could also provide double tax relief for SMEs, research and design voucher schemes where companies are given credit to introduce innovation in their products or services, he said.
The government could also set up a productivity and innovation credit scheme where tax deduction is given to companies as long as their qualifying activities are related to productivity, such as for the buying of automation equipment, training of employees or research and design, he said.
“If you go to project basis, it’s very difficult to propagate it, but if you do a broad-based and pepper the whole industry with these incentives, I think we can hasten the development of an innovative culture, which is very important in our journey towards improving our productivity,” he said.
Saw also highlighted that Malaysia’s decades-old labour laws are not flexible enough to cater to the needs of modern businesses, saying that a more efficient process to resolve conflict between employers and employees was required.
“We need a more effective arbitration and mediation process, we also need to improve the quality of our labour courts,” he said.
