Speech by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng At The Launching Of Penang IT-BPO Hub Next To The Penang International Airport On 1st March 2014
It is a great pleasure for me to be here with you today at the launch of Penang’s RM3.3 Billion Information Technology Outsourcing(IT) and Business Process Outsourcing(BPO) Hub and probably the first IT-BPO Hub in Malaysia. The RM3.3 billion IT-BPO Hub aims to be a change-maker in allowing Penang to escape the middle-income trap and become a high-income economy.
Wining The Future By Investing In The Future Through The IT-BPO Hub
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 seek convergence 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, IT and BPO 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.
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.
In addition to the array of manufacturing and industrial jobs, services are an even bigger creator of wide ranging employment through an extensive range of office functions in the IT-BPO services. This hub will help corporations in the state to take advantage of a globally accepted business and operating model, which allows business to focus on core competencies.
Developing the state’s talented young people to move up the value chain is also a priority of the State Government, including the key area of ICT. We shall at the same time encourage infrastructure development, especially in education by attracting world-class educational institutions not just at the university-level but also vocational level, and thus generate employment opportunities for our youths.
We are helping to build the capacity of the state as it moves toward a knowledge economy by maximizing local content, adding value through integrated industrial parks, and promoting economic diversification and entrepreneurship. In light of the demographic realities, this comprehensive framework offers a winning formula to create high-paying jobs.
Importance of Outsourcing To Economy and Employment
Globally, the outsourcing market is worth US$ 458 billion, and is expected to grow at Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.4%; it is projected to reach US$ 625 billion by 2017. Banking, financial services and insurance, telecom and manufacturing are the major contributors to the outsourcing industry; Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) (63%) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) (33%) are the main contribution to the total outsourcing market.
Malaysia, together with India and China, have been on the top three positions in the AT Kearney’s annual Global Services Location Index (GSLI) since 2003. Penang was picked by KPMG Exploring Global Frontiers Report on the New Emerging Destinations in 2009 as one of the 31 emerging cities for IT-BPO operations.
The fastest growing sector in the BPO industry in Malaysia is in banking, financial services and insurance with 30% of the market share followed by manufacturing (27%), Oil and Gas (22%), and others such as retail, logistics, government and telecom. (Source : Value Note Research 2013). The outsourcing sector in Malaysia is expected to expand at an average rate of 15% in next three years in terms of revenue.
BPO services include customer operations, data processing, back office administration, accounting, technical support, transcription, software development, IT consultancy and disaster recovery services. I am informed that the outsourcing industry has created about 50,000 new jobs as at June 2013. MDeC targets the creation of at least 85,000 jobs by 2017 for Malaysia.
Penang received numerous Shared Service Organisation(SSO) investments made in the past two years from giants such as Citigroup, the USD 17 billion food-edible giant Wilmar, the world’s largest solar company First Solar and Air Asia. Citigroup employs 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!
In addition, there is continuous expansion of existing SSO companies such as IHS, Atmel, Toll Forwarding and Jurong Shipyard. Invariably nearly 100% of the highly-paid workforce are Malaysians. Currently, this sector is employing over 7,000 persons in Penang. SSO can easily be expanded to IT-BPO. These unexpected successes have caused Penang to run out of Grade A office space. That is why this IT-BPO Hub is so important for Penang and Malaysia.
Multi-National corporations or MNCs in Penang do not merely manufacture world renowned products, they are also operating global SSO centres such as Intel, AMD, Jabil, Dell, Motorola, National Instruments, B. Braun, Mattel, Agilent Technologies, Seagate and many more. There is growing knowledge-intensity production in innovation-intensive areas and growing interest in the service sector in the industrial clusters. Penang State Government has identified the potential of IT-BPO and will provide special support as an effort to upgrade the economy.
The RM3.3 Billion IT-BPO Hub Comprises 3 Components
This RM3.3 Billion IT-BPO Hub is directed towards diversifying the state’s economy and enable the growth of a viable employment sector. The IT-BPO Hub comprises 3 components of 74 acres of IT-BPO Park in Bayan Lepas; a planned development of 7 acres BPO Prime in Bayan Baru; and a 100,000 square feet Creative Animation Triggers(CAT) in the George Town heritage enclave.
The Penang State Government is targeting the build-out of approximately 2.4 million square feet of high-grade office towers with integrated development of services apartments/SOHO, ancillary commercial with class ‘A’ amenities and facilities space. For the first time in Malaysia, a World Top 100 university will also be sited here.
The Creative Multimedia industry is making its mark as one of the most sought-after industries in the world, with prospects ranging from post production, visual / special effect studio, publishing, animation, computer games, interactive content, mobile content, applications, and also interactive media. In another words, the Creative Multimedia industry acts as glue that bonds technology and arts together in harmony.
Penang has the potential to become an animation cluster for Malaysia in the future. Here in Penang we have universities, colleges and academies that train creative multimedia talents. Our talents are also very deep in creativity in areas such as arts, 2D and 3D animation and animation touches, not just illustration and artistry.
To incubate this emerging knowledge cluster, the George Town Heritage Enclave has been identified as the centre of creative multimedia development with a totaol of 100,000 sq feet office space known as Creative Animation Triggers (CAT). The Penang State Government intends to rent the renowned Yeap Chor Ee heritage building as well as dedicating a land area of 723 sq.m within the George Town World Heritage enclave to develop the Creative Animation Triggers (CAT).
30,000 New High-Paying Jobs.
The RM 3.3 billion IT-BPO Hub brings a unique business model to Penang by leveraging on our manufacturing strengths, and is set to become a rich training ground for building new capabilities, skills and careers. The IT- BPO hub project will be a veritable economic change-maker that can generate up to 30,000 high paying, knowledge-intensive and high-value jobs for Malaysians.
As the IT-BPO requires basically talented Malaysians and nearly no foreign workers, we need to develop and grow the services sector to make this a success. Before ending, let me congratulate the state and federal agencies for facilitating this IT-BPO and creative multimedia initiatives because unless we invest and promote such hubs, the future cannot be won for Penang and Malaysia.
Thank you!
LIM GUAN ENG
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槟州首席部长林冠英于2014年3月1日在与槟城国际机场毗邻的槟城资讯工艺业务流程外包中心发表演讲，重点如下：
耗资33亿令吉的资讯工艺业务流程外包中心（IT-BPO）立志成为经济改变的促进器，让槟城逃脱中等收入陷阱、迈向高收入经济体。
通过资讯工艺业务流程外包中心，投资在未来、赢得未来
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。
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”
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。
在制造业及工业所提供的就业机会，服务业也是另一个就业机会来源，在IT-BPO的服务里将需要大量的办公室作业。这个中心将会协助州内的企业利用全球都接受的商业及业务模式，好让商业可以专注发挥所长。
我们栽培州内有才华的年轻人，带领他们往高价值工作前进包括资讯工艺，这也是州政府的首要工作。同时我们鼓励基础建设，特别是在教育方面吸引世界级的教育机构，不只是大学机构也有技职教育机构，也为我们的年轻一代创造就业机会。
我们要帮忙提升本州迈向知识经济，将产品的本地含量最大化，通过结合工业园提高附加价值、推动经济多元化及创业者。从人口的现实考量，这种完善的框架让能创造高薪工作。
外包对经济及就业机会的重要性
全球外包市场价值为4580亿美元，预料其复合年增长率（CAGR）为6.4%，到了2017年达6250亿美元。银行、金融服务及保险、电讯及制造业都是外包业的需求所在。资讯工艺外包（63%）及业务流程外包（33%）是外包市场的主要。
马来西亚与印度及中国，与2003年开始，一直都被AT Kearney的全球服务位置指数（GSLI）的前三名。槟城在2009年被毕马威的探讨全球崛起前线城市的年度报告中，被遴选为31个外包中心（Outsourcing hubs）之一。
马来西亚增长最快的业务流程外包行业是银行、金融服务及保险，占30%，其余的包括制造业（27%）、石油及天然气（22%） ，以及其它包括零售、物流、政府及电讯。外包领域在收入方面估计将在未来三年内平均扩展15%。
业务流程包括客户作业、数据处理、后台管理、会计、技术支援、翻译、软件发展、资讯顾问、灾难复原服务。截至2013年6月，外包工业已经创造了5万个新工作。马来西亚多媒体发展机构（MDec）也估计到了2017年将有8万5000个就业机会。
过去两年，多个顶尖企业到来槟进行共享服务及外包模式（SSO）。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、世界最大的太阳能公司First Solar及亚航。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！
开拓共享服务及外包模式的公司还包括IHS, Atmel, Toll Forwarding 及Jurong Shipyard。近乎100%高薪职员是马来西亚人。最近，这个领域在槟城聘请了近7000名员工。服务共享组织可以轻易地扩展成为IT-BPO。我没有预料到槟城的商业服务领域反映热烈，导致A级办公室缺乏。因为这个IT-BPO中心对槟城和马来西亚如此重要。
槟城的跨国企业不再只是生产世界级的产品，它们也在进行世界级的共享服务及外包中心比如 ： Intel, AMD, Jabil, Dell, Motorola, National Instruments, B. Braun, Mattel, Agilent Technologies, Seagate 等等。在创新领域内，越来越多知识密集的产品，工业区内，越来多服务领域的需要。槟城政府已经鉴定IT-BPO的潜能，并将继续提供特别辅助，以提升经济。
33亿令吉的IT-BPO包含三个部分
这个33亿令吉的IT-BPO中心将促进槟州经济多元化并增加就业机会。这个中心包含三个部分，即峇六拜74英亩的IT-BPO；峇央峇鲁7英亩的BPO Prime, 以及乔治市古迹区10万平方尺的创意动画区（CAT）
槟城政府要兴建240万平方尺的高级办公大楼的综合发展，包括服务性公寓、拥有A级设备商业空间。世界顶尖100所大学也会兴建于此。
创意多媒体工业是全世界最受青睐的行业，其前景包括前期制作、影像及特效、播映、动画、电子游戏、互动内容、手机内容、程式及互动媒体。换句话说，创意多媒体工业将让科技及艺术和谐地结合。
槟城有潜能成为马来西亚另一个动画区。我们有大学、学院及学术机构来栽培创意动画的人才。我们的人才不只在图画及艺技方面有创意，在艺术、2D及3D动画 、animation touches方面也创意无限。
为了孕育这个崛起的知识领域，乔治市古迹已经被列为创意多媒体中心，其中10万平方尺的办公空间将被列为创意动画区（CAT）。槟州政府也有意租下著名的叶祖意古迹大楼以及分配乔治市古迹区广场的723平方尺的地段，作为创意动画区发展用途。
3万个高薪职位
耗资33亿令吉的IT-BOP中心善用我们在制造业的优势，为槟城带来独特的生意模式，并且成为新的才能、技术及事业的培训基地。IT-BPO中心将成为经济改变的促进器，为大马创造3万个高薪、知识密集及具附加价值的工作职位。
由于IT-BPO要的是有才华的马来西亚人，而不是外国劳工。我们需要发展及培育服务领域。