Nation Performance

new day and new issue...I've been reading a lot on our economic performance lately and I got to say we have done pretty well up until this moment. World Economic Forum has ranked us 24th in terms of Growth Competitiveness Index for 2005 and the overall ranking:

Finland	1	5.94	1	à	0
United States	2	5.81	2	à	0
Sweden	3	5.65	3	à	0
Denmark	4	5.65	5	ä	1
Taiwan	5	5.58	4	æ	-1
Singapore	6	5.48	7	ä	1
Iceland	7	5.48	10	ä	3
Switzerland	8	5.46	8	à	0
Norway	9	5.4	6	æ	-3
Australia	10	5.21	14	ä	4
Netherlands	11	5.21	12	ä	1
Japan	12	5.18	9	æ	-3
United Kingdom	13	5.11	11	æ	-2
Canada	14	5.1	15	ä	1
Germany	15	5.1	13	æ	-2
New Zealand	16	5.09	18	ä	2
Korea, Rep.	17	5.07	29	ä	12
United Arab Emirates	18	4.99	16	æ	-2
Qatar	19	4.97	—	n/a	n/a
Estonia	20	4.95	20	à	0
Austria	21	4.95	17	æ	-4
Portugal	22	4.91	24	ä	2
Chile	23	4.91	22	æ	-1
Malaysia	24	4.9	31	ä	7
Luxembourg	25	4.9	26	ä	1
Ireland	26	4.86	30	ä	4
Israel	27	4.84	19	æ	-8
Hong Kong SAR	28	4.83	21	æ	-7
Spain	29	4.8	23	æ	-6
France	30	4.78	27	æ	-3
Belgium	31	4.63	25	æ	-6
Slovenia	32	4.59	33	ä	1
Kuwait	33	4.58	—	n/a	n/a
Cyprus	34	4.54	38	ä	4
Malta	35	4.54	32	æ	-3
Thailand	36	4.5	34	æ	-2
Bahrain	37	4.48	28	æ	-9
Czech Republic	38	4.42	40	ä	2
Hungary	39	4.38	39	à	0
Tunisia	40	4.32	42	ä	2

and as usual, Singapore is always ahead of us. After all Singapore is a developed nation. From my understanding, a developed nation enjoys a high living standard with high per capita Gross DOmestic Product (GDP). SO does UAE or Brunei is considered a developed nation just because they enjoy high per capita GDP?? No, I don't think so. Measuring GDP alone is not enough to declare them as a developed nation. Brunei and UAE is a good example of countries that enjoy high per capita GDP but overwhelmingly dependant on one source of revenue, which is oil.

The true developed nation must have sophisticated and diversified economy. One for sure their Services sector (banking, tourism, education, retail, etc) must be well developed as we can see in most developed nations. The developmental progression tends to follow this order...reliance on agriculture or natural resources (as our nation did from independence until late 70's)..then move on to manufacturing industry (as what is happening now) and later to service based economy. From my observation, we are heading towards that but the question is whether we could achieve it in 14 years time?? I think what the Government is planning now is really a logical move:

To strengthen our banking and financial system using the 'Islamic' attraction. The Islamic financial Hub will definitely attract large funds from Middle East if and only if our financial system is stable enough...to become a conventional financial Hub is really hard to do since there are so many established and stable financial system in most developed nations. The nearest example will be Singapore..so instead of competing directly, we should use our Islamic attraction to strengthen our service based sector. After all, the market is there..most of wealthy arabs invest their money in Europe and USA. So, the shift of this investment to our country will surely benefit us....

Next is Tourism...Tourism is the second largest contributor to our economy after manufacturing industry. We do have potential to expand this since our country has a lot to offer...unique culture, beautiful beaches and islands, breathtaking mountainous scenery , etc. Government has put a lot of efforts to promote our country, Malaysia Truly Asia...you can see it in EPL right :)???

Education is next...UK, Australia, USA, New Zealand is a good example that use education to strengthen their service based economy. I have to say we have a long way to compete but I can see many foreign students have choosen M'sia to further their study due to low cost and fair quality. Esp Islamic students. It's a good start anyway..

I have a lot to say in this issue..I guess I'll continue later....

Engineers/Scientists are losers?

To become a qualified engineer or scientist is not that easy. But do all the hard works to become one are really worth it? After all based on the following theorem...

taken somewhere:

Dilbert's "Salary Theorem" states that "Engineers and scientists can never earn as much as business executives, sales people, accountants and especially liberal arts majors." This theorem can now be supported by a mathematical equation based on the following two well known postulates:

Postulate 1: Knowledge is Power.
Postulate 2: Time is Money.
As every engineer knows: Power = Work / Time.

Since: Knowledge = Power,
then Knowledge = Work / Time,
and Time = Money,
then Knowledge = Work / Money.

Solving for Money, we get: Money = Work / Knowledge.

Thus, as Knowledge approaches zero, money approaches infinity, regardless of the amount of work done. so with knowledge approaches infinity, money aprroaches zero!!

haha...I think this theorem really does apply in the reality world we live in today..Give another 100 years, I bet there will be few engineers or scientists around :) if and only if they keep earning substantially lower than comedian such as jerry seinfeld or ray romano..

ooo..by the way, talking about knowledge approaches zero, money approaches infinity..I do admire some of them..The Dominator - roger federer, zinedine zidane, kobe bryant . ..well, these guys didn't help me directly or contribute anything to me but indirectly, they teach me something ..talent combines with hard work = the dominator!

roger federer is on his way to capture his 7th Grand Slam - Come on Roger!! Kobe Bryant just scored 81 points, the 2nd highest in NBA history and zidane - admire him a lot esp that exquisite goal in that champ league final

owh back to reality, got some works to do..later on next issue!

income distribution inequality

You think we have progessed so much for the past 20 years. Yup, no doubt about that and I'm glad we still progressing despite financial crisis that hit us in 1997. But do u know our nation ranks among the most unequal societies in Southeast Asia in terms of income distribution. Well get this:
only 10% from the population earn rm 5000 and above (and this group of course held majority of nation's wealth) and majority 60% - 70% only earn RM2000 and below ....considering cost of living in Malaysia steadily rising over the years, this people will face a very tough life just for living!!of course single folks won't feel anything but we talk about people with family to support here..statistic shows only 7% from population live in poverty (based on monthly earning of RM 5++), but come on....this can't be right, even with RM 1000/month with family to support will face a hard life...based on standard poverty measure, the real figure should be average income of population / 2...so I think RM 1000 is the right one...easy to say now almost 30% - 40% of Malaysian population still live in poverty...quite a shocker!!
while most of Klang Valley folks dress in stylish Armani, FCUK and drinks in high class starbucks, dome but they are still many and many people facing a hard time just to LIVE...sometimes it is unfair that only 10% of us get probably 70% of nation's wealth while 90% of us have to share remaining 30% nation's wealth...something to think about..hmmm