Malaysia has achieved a great many things. When I arrived here in 1992 as a schoolboy, the tallest building was the Menara Maybank and the most iconic was the Tabung Haji building – both designed by Hijjas Kasturi. The challenge now is can you see the Menara Maybank in any given shot of the Kuala Lumpur skyline?
The development has always been about reaching for the next level, reaching higher. The question (somewhat philosophical but also practical) remains, what is the direction of the next step?
For business leaders, change and opportunity are presented in a myriad of messages in the local and international media. The ability to read the pulse of the nation, now aided by a bouquet of data tools coupled with the best efforts of analysts and punters alike, will define if a business’s next step is into an open field of opportunities or a mire of challenges.
The challenges of new regulations include more acronyms like “ESG” to add to the alphabet soup that is management. In the Malaysian market, the current government is looking to increase economic resilience through improved regulatory frameworks and tweaking existing policies and laws. International destination markets are changing at a rapid rate as well. New opportunities are more complicated and require a more sophisticated solution, especially for those looking to regional supply chains for revenue.
The opportunities for Malaysia are clear and the narrative there has not changed much in a decade – a nation in the heart of Asia, which is in the middle of ASEAN, the growth engine of the future. With a collective ASEAN market of over 600 million consumers, India and China are on the near horizon with over a billion people to sell goods and services.
Upwards, outwards, deeper, or inwards, or does it require growth in all directions? And is that why a collective growing pain is being felt as the world throws a new set of challenges and opportunities our way?
My favourite part of this photo is the green trees in the foreground. There is still plenty of green around the city of Kuala Lumpur, which makes it easier to think, which may be more important than we realise. The moment may require a deep breath, a moment of pause with considerable thought as to the next step. Especially considering that the next step will be so critical. The next step may come down to the confidence of a given businessperson’s level of confidence in the economy and that might just be a gut feeling that something bigger is possible.
This letter to the editor is written by Nordin Abdullah, founding chairman of the Malaysia Global Business Forum (MGBF) and founder of Crisis Management Centre.
*Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of NHA – News Hub Asia.
