Press Statement by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng in Kuala Lumpur on 27 February 2014.
Penang will launch the long-awaited Penang Business Process Outsourcing(BPO) hub next to the Penang International Airport to be opened by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at 10.30 am Saturday 1 March 2014.
Malaysia and Penang’s economy has shifted from extraction in the 1960s to industrialisation, from the export of raw commodities to manufacturing. In other words, Penang’s economy was factor-driven by relying on basic commodities before being efficiency-driven by relying on manufacturing. Penang needs to be not only efficiency-driven but also innovation-driven in manufacturing, services and even the public sector.
The key to future economic success is not an over-reliance on one sector but to seekconvergence of not only the manufacturing sector but also both the services and government sector. Services sector includes not only tourism, medical treatment and education but shared services such as finance, accounting and data processing.
In seeking convergence, the government plays an important role as an enabler between manufacturing and services sector. Government must also invest and innovate. The government must invest in infrastructure, people, incentives and subsidies. The government must also innovate with new policies that stresses on:-
• liberalisation of the existing rules and to reduce red-tape,
• divestment from non-core businesses or accept that the “business of government is to stay out of business”,
• permit free and fair competition; and
• encourage human capital formation where human talent is now the new oil of the global economy.
There is no doubt that Penang has the necessary conditions to realise our potential as one of the 31 future Business Processing Outsourcing(BPOs) hubs of the future as predicted by KPMG international accounting firm. Two and a half years ago, the state government embarked on a bold decision to focus on the services sector as they employ almost 100% local workers with high paying jobs.
I did not expect the good response from the service sector as Penang has almost run out of Grade A office space. Top companies which recently opened this year include Air Asia which moved their IT, procurement and human resources shared services from Bangkok to Penang. Wilmar, the USD 17 billon global edible food has also opened their shared services hub in Penang last year.
And Citigroup just opened their new process outsourcing for financial services. Employing more than 1,000 local employees to run their largest regional trade and cash processing centre for the transaction services business with an annual volume of 20 million transactions worth USD 5.8 trillion!
Penang’s successes in the services sector has even attracted First Solar, the world’s leader in solar energy, to set up their shared services outsourcing hub not in their factory in Penang. These unexpected successes have caused Penang to run out of Grade A office space. That is why this BPO Hub that will be launched by the Prime Minister this Saturday is so important for Penang and Malaysia.
In seeking convergence, what we need to do is to ensure a partnership of equals between the 3 sectors of manufacturing, services and government. In other words, a partnership with capital, labour, innovators with the government as an enabler. Penang’s future prosperity depends on whether we can achieve convergence and thus our manufacturing, services and government sectors can be both efficiency-driven and innovation-driven.
Lim Guan Eng
—-Mandarin Version—
槟州首席部长林冠英于2014年2月27日在吉隆坡发表声明：
首相拿督斯里纳吉将在2014年3月1日早上10.30分为让人期待已久的槟城业务流程外包中心（BPO）主持开幕。
首相拿督斯里纳吉将在2014年3月1日早上10.30分为让人期待已久的槟城业务流程外包中心（BPO）主持开幕。
大马与槟城的经济在60年代工业化转型，从出口原料转型为制造业。换句话说槟城以往的经济在还没有依赖效率导向的制造业之前，是依赖条件导向的原产品。而今，槟城不止需要效率导向，更需要拥有创新导向的制造业、服务业，甚至是公家领域。
槟城希望能向国家仪器学习如何提升制造业，并扩大成为服务业，以便我们可以往更高的层次迈进。未来关键的经济成功模式，不再于过渡仰赖单一领域，不过却汇集了制造业、服务业及政府。所谓服务业不只是旅游业、医药服务及教育，也包括金融、会计及资讯处理的资源共享服务。
政府作为制造业与服务业之间的率先启动者扮演着重要的角色，因此政府也必须投资及创新。政府必须投资在硬体设施、人才、奖励与津贴；同时政府必须在政策模式上创新：
• 松绑原有的规则，减少官僚作业
• 舍弃非核心事业或必须承认“政府对经商需要做的事，就是别亲自经商”
• 免费参与及公平竞争
• 鼓励增加人力资本，如今人才已经成全球经济的“新石油”
无可否认，槟城能被KPMG国际会计公司列为全球31个商业服务外包中心（BPO）的其中一个据点，槟城自有其必要条件。两年前，州政府毅然做出重要决定专注这项服务领域，因为他们能高薪聘请了100%的本地员工。
我没有预料槟城的商业服务领域反映热烈，导致如今A级的办公室几乎缺市。今年来槟的顶尖大企业还包括亚洲航空将其资讯科技、采购及人力资源共享中心从曼谷迁移到槟城。营业额450亿美元的全球食品业巨人丰益国际也在槟城设立资源共享服务中心。
花旗集团也刚在槟城设立他们最新的金融服务外包公司，聘请了超过1000名本地员工作为营运每年2000万笔交易量，共5.8兆美元交易额的最大区域贸易及现金交易中心！
槟城在服务领域的成功甚至吸引了领先全世界业界的第一太阳能公司，在槟城设立他们的资源共享中心，而不是在他们居林厂房的原址。这让我们坚信联邦政府在吉打促成的重大投资也可惠及槟城。
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我们需要的是制造业、服务业与政府之间的平等合作。换句话说，就是资金、人力、创新与作为率先启动者的政府合作无间。槟城的未来将系于制造业、服务业及政府，能并驾齐驱地效率导向及创新导向兼顾。
林冠英