PETALING JAYA, Nov 8 — Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) today released a data-packed booklet to educate Malaysians on how international trade agreements and policies can affect their lives, such as measures to reduce the rate of lifestyle diseases and their access to essential medicine.
KRI managing director Datuk Charon Mokhzani said it was critical for all Malaysians to understand international trade as it affects their daily lives, including food which is also an item imported by Malaysia.
“We have written it in a way we hope is understandable to people with no background in trade, no background in economics and no background in law and international law,” he said before launching the book Why Trade Matters: Trade Issues in Non-Communicable Diseases, Essential Medicines and Education.
KRI director of research Junaidi Mansor, who was involved in the preparation of the book, said it was aimed at creating awareness to help facilitate “constructive discussion” between Malaysians and the government on trade policies and international trade agreements.
This book is the third in the Why Trade Matters series where KRI seeks to unpack the complex issue of international trade into smaller segments and does not carry policy recommendations.
“The objective of our books Why Trade Matters I, II, III is advocacy; creating that initial debate for interested stakeholders to start thinking about it and exploring further,” he told the media after the book launch at Universiti Malaya.
Noting the book’s launch venue and presentations on the previous two books at universities nationwide, Junaidi said the book series was also aimed to create a research culture.
“We wanted to spark interest in the younger generation to start looking at trade and how could they use this book as a stepping stone for them to do further research,” he said.
According to Junaidi, KRI had invited a group of university students to read through this book before it was released and that it had went through several rounds of feedback session to reduce the content’s complexity.
“We had to do a few rounds because the first draft that we did, even university students couldn’t understand,” he said when illustrating the complicated nature of the topic of international trade.
This book is the first in the Why Trade Matters book series to be also available in Bahasa Malaysia.
The book will be made available for download for free on Khazanah Research Institute’s website and can also be obtained by sending a self-addressed envelope to KRI.
Among other things, the book explores public health policies that could be used to reduce risks of lifestyle diseases such as lung cancer and trade policies regulating tobacco, alcohol abuse and dietary choices; as well as how international trade agreements could restrict health policies such as using plain packaging for cigarettes.
The book also touches on how international agreements on protection of intellectual property such as medicine patents could affect accessibility to cheaper generic versions of essential medicine; as well as the need for the government to identify a suitable trade policy that would facilitate both better access to education and higher quality education that the public can afford.
Charon said KRI expects to release another book in the first half of next year on international trade agreements and how it affects Malaysia, with the detailed and technical content to be prepared by KRI, local and international experts.
“This one is for beginners, that one is for practitioners, so it will be about 300 pages plus, very detailed about the different aspects - intellectual property will be one chapter, international trade and government procurement. That one will contain some policy recommendations,” he said.
