North corridor. And we thought Iskandar was mega.
Read the highlights for the North Corridor Economic Region launched by the PM today. Among other things, the government and private finance initiatives will pump in some RM10 billion a year in the next 18 years, or RM177 billion from between 2007 and 2025! If Iskandar will create 1 million jobs in the next 20 years, NCER will better that with 1.5 million!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Mega, mega, mega
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I may sound negative, please forgive me. So far, I saw all corridors were launched (ceremony) only. Millions jobs still on paper too. Don't forgot about BioValley we used to talked about it last time. But, where is it now? I may sound negative, please forgive me.
ReplyDeleteThe oil field is running dry soon, Sarawak have lots almost all the resources by now and all this goes into the pockets of the YBs under BN/UMNO and also to finance all the mega project that never see a day of success.
ReplyDeleteImagine if you are an Iban and someone came and take alway everything that is worth something from your longhouse and also telling you that your longhouse is build on Islamic land and you are under an Islamic state. This is worst that Palestine under Israel.
As long as the number of jobs look good on paper and the project starts with a bang, good enough lah! After that it is other people's problem. The show must go on.
ReplyDeleteumno the new jews: I fail to see the connection between this issue and Islam. Kindly refrain from tarnishing Islam with the likes of umno.
ReplyDeleteOn the issue itself, many many years ago, we were told that Malaysia's state of insolvency were disproportionately high. Then, the miraculous black gold came into the rescue.
Now - as mentioned by umno the jews - the fields are running dry! But do umnoian realise that? They know, but do they realise it?
Malaysians, all of us - you, your children, your grandchildren, I, and my descendants, eveyone who is a Malaysian - will inherit a debt so huge, one that will make us a slave to foreign nations! And for what? The penny they - the umnoians - chuck by the roadside to entice your vote! What a disgrace we are as a society, as a nation of humans! - Amir
Rocky - does PFI = EPF?
ReplyDeleteIf so, all the pieces are in place.
EPF now owns RHB. RHB will be the conduit for PFI money to flow out. EPF's monthly collection from employees is said to be circa RM1bil a month so the outflow as proposed will hardly be a bilp on the screen.
IF Azlan Zainol sits on RHB Credit Committee then there is real conflict of interest.
Wow! Jobs, jobs everywhere.
ReplyDeleteAAB should be lauded for bringing all these opportunities to Malaysians.
We must support him to make sure that China is not the only sweat-shop to the world.
Btw any word from him on the minimum wage of rm900 for the private sector?
PS - UTNJ, you're not very bright, are you.
South Corridor, North Corridor, East Corridor, we are in Land of Corrdor. Seems like we are staying in a giant long-house requiring many corridors now.
ReplyDeleteCorrect me if im wrong, I always thought corridor means long passage! So, does it mena long passage 2 d north?
ReplyDeleteAiyoh, with a name like tat, die die lah! Bad fenug shui, bad feng shui!
I am living at the foothill of Gunung Jerai, Kedah for all my life and that made me one of the 'should-be benefitial individual' of this i-dont-like-mega-projects-once project.
ReplyDeletewho says numbers are boring?
177 billion..!!!! OMG. and the return they say..could be 40 times of that..?? (I made that one up though.. hehehe)
that should top the trillions of the FDI and that I-dont-remember-that-one thing..
NST should easily put many '0' on their front page tomorrow.
aci kerat jari lah! hehehehe
Hi Bro'
ReplyDeletePardon me, I am as negative as all others on the ability of Pak Lah.
If he can't plan and execute on our 5-Year-Plan (9MP) properly, can you expect that his 20 years plan on NCER could works?
Anyway, 20 years is a long years ahead, with or without him, the private sectors will still develop the northern regions as intended. Just like here, the Opposition had been dorminating Bagan SPU since 1986, till now, new development were like bamboo shoots, outsider are moving in, for retiring, for business, our road re-surface regularly by local authority.
Do we need Pak Lah to launch NCER ?
Hey...hey...GE is near, dia kena bikin wayang juga, walau pun ia tak suka...
Let me try to understand the strategy : are they saying that once they put up the billion-ringgit infrastructure, investors will pour in money to build factories and do export?
ReplyDeleteWhen even the thais are worried about the chinese, and even the chinese are worried about the vietnamese, who are us malaysians about?
They should rethink the whole strategy. Exactly what will be the moneyspinning activities AFTER 2020? They haven't said a single word on this; only that they must reach 2020 developed status, and so here're the projects.
I am writing this using only some neurons on the little bone of the spinal cord.
Don't let it be No Action Talk Only.
ReplyDelete-The Man Who Sold The World-
Seriously, do you think such election gimmick would fly? Come on! The kampung folks arent idiots. IDR havent take off, now NCER. Next what? JAMBAN?
ReplyDeleteWow plenty of jibs. Can I have 2? Tapau please.
ReplyDeleteCare to bet?..a name change will be under way.RM10 billion a year..wow...corridor becomes Grand Canyon...for the tourists only?
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase Lord Acton's
ReplyDeletefamous dictum, "Endless power corrupts
endlessly."
I quote from Jean Lipman-Blumen's "The Allure of Toxic Leaders"
"In sum, toxic leadership is a costly phenomenon. It
destroys individuals, groups and organizations, even
countries. Failing to deal resolutely with the complex
forces that foster our acquiescence to toxic leaders
will only promote the destruction such leaders create.
Organizational policies can help provide structural
defences against the paradox of toxic leadership, but
followers cannot avoid their personal responsibility
for serious reflection and change. By examining why
we buy into the comforting illusions that such
damaging leaders peddle, we begin to dispel the allure
of toxic leaders." End of quote.
If we say NO to DUI (driving under influence), then we must say NO to toxic leaders.
I remember a Dato or Tan Sri chap who was nicknamed "Mr MOU". Well, he signed alot of MOUs here, there, everywhere, but semua-nya fizzled out.
ReplyDeleteSo now we have a "Mr Corridor", an Iskandar Corridor now a Northern Corridor. RM 50 billion here, RM 100 billion there, RM 200 billion somewhere else. Whats next? The Door?
Mr Corridor wants to be bigger than Megathir, thats all. Who will he rob to fund all these projects?
haha..if anybody believe this story..then BN is a sure winner in the next election.
ReplyDeleteJust ask how much of the millions of ringgit pledges in Ijok were realised.
Now that Ijok is won..nothing will happen.
Mana cari itu 'Lui' to fund these Mega-mega-mega projects? If we keep borrowing, our future generation of Malaysian will be left to shoulder these debts, Bedol Napoleon is maxing his credits, leeching on our potential for present gain!
ReplyDeletemegatron, transform!!
ReplyDeleteSdr Rocky Bru,
ReplyDeleteI would like to look at this initiative positively.
For a start, the mega projects for which Dr Mahathir was blamed continue under Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Secondly the Northern states where the Malays form the majority are among the poorest.
Rice farming and rubber smallholding are keeping the Malays on the fringes of the economy. Rice farming is one of the causes of rural poverty.
Generally we need more jobs. The economy has not been generating enough employment. In fact less jobs were created last year than 2005 whereas more school leavers and graduates are joining the job market.
The following is what MIER has to say about the economy vis-Ã -vis employment. A Star Report.
“Tuesday July 24, 2007
Economy facing challenge of fewer jobs
KUCHING: The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) has identified growing unemployment as one of the challenges facing the economy.
Its executive director Datuk Dr Mohamed Ariff said although the economy was growing at a healthy rate, it was not creating enough jobs.
“There is a low correlation between gross domestic product (GDP) growth and job creation. Last year, the economy created 200,000 jobs fewer than in 2005,” he said at MIER’s 12th regional corporate economic briefing here yesterday.
He said this was mainly due to the economy undergoing major structural changes.
“We are moving away from a labour-intensive economy to one which is skills and knowledge-intensive.
“This is something we have to learn to live with and we will have to go for quality in our workforce rather than quantity,” he said.
As such, he said that skills upgrading would be very important for the workforce.
Dr Ariff also said that Malaysia depended too much on immigrant workers.
He said there were two million registered and 700,000 unregistered foreign workers in the country.
“At the moment foreign workers account for about 20% of the workforce.
“By 2010, there will be more than five million foreign workers if this trend continues,” he said.
So I am all for this mega project. Also it may benefit the Muslims in Southern Thailand and, hopefully, bring lasting peace to the region.
We must try to prosper our poor neighbours.
Thank you.
" If Iskandar will create 1 million jobs in the next 20 years, NCER will better that with 1.5 million! "
ReplyDeleteWah ! We are so very lucky to have such a good and clever government yah. This PM very clever one yah .
But I think better to have lower price for my petrol now lah.
This is mega hype! The world economy is so fluid, influenced by a myriad of factors beyond our control.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot even predict what's in store for the economy five years from now and the PM is looking at 20 years ahead.
If this fellow cannot even keep his simple promises like - more transparency, fighting corruption, improving the police force, press freedom - who will trust him with mega promises.
This project is for the gullible to vote for BN.
Anyway, where is the money?
.
ReplyDeleteFor jobs sake!!!!
You gotta be kidding. Right.
After all these years they failed to see it ....
what makes you think they can see now?
Its not like they are are of superior mind. Most are just dodos waiting to reap benefits themselves.
.
Dear Rocky,
ReplyDeleteIf the SJER incorporated the on-going development such as Bandar Nusajaya (launched in the nid-90ies) not to mention the Danga Bay and Gerbang Selatan development that was planned and started even the SJER still not in the womb yet being rebrand as SJER by Pak Lah, there will be nothing new... dont give the price tag of RM200b please. Am not impressed. Also, the NCER with the mother of all MOU signed by Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar and Iranian for landing the crude oil and process in kedah then land bridged to kelantan and load onto vessel to ship to thirsty china being rebrand and incorporate into NCER and hopefully to be remember as "this is also my idea" (remember who said that?).. All these merely a rebranding process.. Remember Telekom Malaysia was rebrand into just " TM ".. what was involved were hundred of million ringgit tax-payers money to change the billboards, signboards, letter heads, envelops, sinages, uniforms, paintings of buildings/vehicles, whereas fixed telephone line remains the same telephone line. Nothing new except the capital reserve was watered doen into the drain at the expense of tax payers money... Can you see the KFC logo? how long was it being used? Nestle? Heinz? Coca-Cola? do they rebrand thier name?.. NO !!! they improve thier products and quality.... huh!!! tired already...
Listen up Morons!
ReplyDeleteYou guys are missing the point again! Singapore is attacking us and eventually will control the country! Singapore are "attacking" us from both south and north and our politicians (namely Malay politicians) are lead to believe that local companies are pumping mney into the development project but infact Singaporean are alway in the background.
The Northern Corridor is just another ruse by the government (which is heavily infected by Singapore agents) to take away attention from Iskandar where the reddotter is busy and will control a big chunk of Malay land, okay lah Malaysian land.
Already Singaporen are taking control of many choice prime real estate up north. Example is a land given by Lembaga Kemajuan Ikan (LKIM) to a Malay entrepreneur to breed prawen at Bukit Malut will be taken away and to be sold to a Singapore company to be converted intol a 36 holes golf course which is quite near our naval base!
So Malaysia please wake up before it is too late!
To Kadir Jasin!
ReplyDeleteWith due respect to you, yes the Malays are poor in the north because we have leaders who are not really concern about them except they (the leaders past and present) are more concern with grandiose projects such as the development of Gunung Mat Cincang with its now badly manitained cable car service which I will not go on board if I dont need to, Porto Malai which is only meant for rich people, but Malays do have jobs in the kitchen and being labourers! Telaga Harbout marina also for the rich. Basically Langkawi development is only meant for the rich!
But I am more concerned about weeding out corrupt leaders who are selling this country to Singapore, yes the northern Malays are poor but what ever project that has to be initiated must be done in a manner that our sovereignty and territorial integrity is intact, and for this we need a real Malay leaders who are above cheating and corrupt practices, the way I look at it the MB of Kedah is getting fatter and fatter, his face is getting redder and he had better look after his health or hypertension will seep in followed by a stroke as had happened to his predecessor!
Meanwhile let us not solve our problems by selling our country!
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteSeriously, do you think such election gimmick would fly? Come on! The kampung folks arent idiots. IDR havent take off, now NCER. Next what? JAMBAN?
----------------------------------
That's right , the next in the making is the JAMBAN Corridor !!!!
Mother's of All Coridors
The pipe with many tiny holes
ReplyDeleteHang it up let the water fall
As it flows dripping down
Touching the glass panels
The running curves capturing the eyes
On the concrete pond
The soft flashing water cry
Drawing out droplets of bouncy flow
The enrapture for the new lives
Other creatures envy
Flying high and low to witness
The new gadget comes to entice
The cooling effect
No sun to heat up the place
Only the cloudy images
The pictures hazy in the eyes
The sparrow parade
3 in a row
Listening to the dropping fall
While picking up seeds
Scattered on the pearl grass
Lying neatly enduring the heat
The sparkles in the pond
The fishes swim gathering storm
Waving in and out trying to feed
And the cats waiting
Paws sharp and shining
See which will be the first
Lying on the concrete
The eagles flying high
Watching and searching
For the preys running lose
On the field
And the guard dogs
Ears sharp eyes wide
Tongues licking out
Standing alert
Waiting for the fall
I thought the government promised that we Johorians will be impressed January this year.
ReplyDeleteI reported the coming of a great era for Johor while waiting for the clock to tick to January 2007.
Now we're entering August, APA PUN TADAK!
having a ceo of the country, occasionally flying in, attending the launching ceremony of one 'door' after another & spewing some hogwash ... then what?
ReplyDeletethen promptly took-off to god know where for another couple of weeks.
and all the 'doors' will just remained passageways to nowhere & remnants of this 'goblok' administration.
Taikor said...
ReplyDeleteI thought the government promised that we Johorians will be impressed January this year.
I reported the coming of a great era for Johor while waiting for the clock to tick to January 2007.
Now we're entering August, APA PUN TADAK!
------------> SEMUA NYA OK LOL !!
Furious says,
ReplyDeletein response to A Kadir Jasin - as usual you had to put in the comment that the Malays would benefit from the development of the northern region.
Why can't you, for once, see the other races are also human beings with mouth and stomach which need to be fed? Why must you and the likes of you think of your own race only? What is so wrong in looking out at the welfare of all races who are poor?
It has been more that 20 or 30 years of protectionism, and 50 years of independence - yet you are so concerned of just your MALAYS. It is amazing that someone who is exposed and experienced like you, having a myopic mindset.
I really believe that it is people with your type of mentality that will keep the MALAYS backward.
I wonder if you were given power to govern/rule Malaysia - would you be fair to all. I don't think so.
A Kadir Jasin - get out of your nutshell.
However we look at the two projects, north and south, we cannot escape the conclusion that this govt is saying - build first, then they will come. So was said of Cyberjaya and Cybervillage. And those had looked nice on draftsman paper when it was 'conceptualized'.
ReplyDeleteBut what if we build first, and again they don't come?
If you have a big bevy of investors, foreign and local, queueing up to plough their money and plant, then by all means.
But if you're just looking at nice housing estates and agricultural land, where're are the money-generating activities going to be that will spell achieving that level of per capita income which says we are developed status?
Helping the poor - definitely yes. But do it with eyes open. If the projects are to be mainly funded by the private sector, wouldn't they ask how they are to get their returns from projects that by the looks of it will be no different from building houses for the middle-class in which case what will those middle-class people be doing to earn enough to pay for them? And if you say it will benefit the poor, do you have in clear focus some activities for them that's more than being stall runners such as you would still see today in Langkawi - you know that row of indifferent shoplots pandering to occasional tourists and all selling the same things - rattan stuff, cheap crockery, some beach batik? And if this is the case, how will the PFI get their returns for the huge proportion of funds they will plough in?
And if you say it will also help stabilize southern thailand, why isn't that place stabilized even up till today when we have been having Bayan Lepas FTZ, or the Northern Triangle of Kedah-SouthernThailand-Sumatra?
The crux of the matter is that the govt is straw-grasping because it seems they are just developing property. If you say agriculture, isn't that what's happening at the moment? If you say manufacturing, manufacture what, more importantly, for who? If you say creating jobs, who will be paying the wages, and for what, and more importantly, who will be buying the things made?
If it's all about some hocus-pocus slushing the funds around and building hype, let's see how that can be done on cashflow projection spreadsheets.
To do such megabillion projects, there must be very compelling revenue stream projections. You don't just rubberstamp some architect drawings and say go, praying that the funds-slushing will cause people to start investing because there's now more mobility and clustering. People only move and cluster if they have something worthwhile to do that will earn more than they will need to spend. What is it?
To cyberjaya and cybervillage, add rakan muda complex etc. My fear is white elephants will come up there, to be funded by the rakyat for the rest of this century. Like ze'tolls.
Now this thing about the pipeline. The tanker reaches the west coast and decants the oil; it goes through the pipeline and reaches the east coast, refined or to be refined. Then the product is loaded on the tanker. Is tanker B the same as tanker A? If tanker C is behind tanker A, will the pipeline be cleared of A's oil first before C's oil is pumped into it? Or, are A,B,C,D etc's oil all to flow to big depot tanks on east coast and you won't know whose is whose? Different tankers may hold oil of different quality.
Sigh, i am goblok
Strange how the urban folks seem to look down on the rural poor!
ReplyDeleteIt's all very well to mouth off, but there don't seem to be any concrete suggestions from even the urban smart mouths on how to bridge the urban-rural divide.
Or would we rather that the rural folk all migrate to the cities in search of the proverbial "pot of gold"?
and that set me thinking again.
ReplyDeleteIt shouldn't be about urban-rural divides. Let the urban folks run as fast as they can up the income chase. That has to be the thing to do. It's pace-setting for the whole country's economy. It's also reflecting of inter-connectivity with the rest of the world. And it sets targets for the rural folks down the timeline.
Having said that, the rural folks must be helped. Regardless of race. And they should be helped as much as possible wherever they are. One should only concede that they may not be where they are if the new place of earning more will be within their present State. That should avoid the situation as is being faced by the state of Perak which looks like already hollowed out.
Therefore, moving to cross-state cities, as opposed to moving to say 20 km driving distance from new townships or industrial hubs, should be a minimizable option.
Now to the urban, and separately, rural income upliftings. (i'm writing this only one good eye left, and not much brain there).
There has to be three veneers to national development.
At the forefront, and as a spearhead, some commercial activities that are either at the cutting edge, or new applications for old but high income markets. Let's say automobiles. Think telematics devices.
Below the forefront, there's the present set of activities which have one intrinsic property - they are internally and inherently self-improving; product or application extension; and that's because they have strong internal or insourceable R&D. They coexist with and compete without losing much ground to the others in the world. Here let's say it's microchips, car radios etc.
Below the present set, we have the furniture, gloves, car parts, canned pineapples, packaging, retailing, food stalls etc.
Right now, the three veneers we have as a snapshot of what this country is doing to attract inflow of income that will pay wages, fund projects etc that is not from oil are under threat.
The forefront doesn't exist because there's little thrusty cutting edge R&D that will see big returns in the next five years. What is the most successful indigenous hightech product that is made here? One can exclude those that are transfer-priced by the MNCs assembling stuff here, or the low-volume customized chip designs.
The present set is under assault by other lower-cost bases in other countries.
The ones below the present set virtually only pays what they can to maintain the present affordabilities of the rural and lower income groups.
We should be focused on all three veneers since one will affect the other, and all will affect the national economy, which thus means the allocation of funds say on 1.1.2021.
In other words, if oil disappears by 2010, what happens on 1.1.2011 that will help make 1.1.2021 something inspiring?
To lift the rural/poor groups out of veneer 3, something must be done that will either increase their sources of income, or increase their income from one source, and these can done in a gradual basis or in one lophit. Gradual must mean developing businesses they can slide into and scale up their skills at the same time. Lophit means they can jump in because a new project is in town/near their kampungs.
If we have a new type of disneyland in Kedah, for instance, and it attracts thousands of starry-eyed wallet-bulging tourists from the region to come and buy higher quality things than rattan stuff, then go for it. Because we all want the rural folks to make at least five times more each month next year, than they have made every month for the last twenty. But they cannot all be selling rattan stuff. They may be selling daGucci t-shirts or new flavor marshmallows or victorinox luggage or made in Sg petani tag heuer - who cares? so long as pakcik gets to bring home RM8,000 per month on 1.1.2008, we should be happy. But not rattan stuff or canned pineapples only. And from the 8K pm, he can put aside some, amplified by state funds, and perhaps a steady loan, to add some new business - canteen service for the new factory, transport service for the inter-kampung cottage industry to make artificial pearls accessories, lathe machining using vocational technicians from Penang or Kota Baru or even Golok to make precision parts for the suzuki subcompact assembler in Butterworth etc.
In other words, see first what the world wants, and scale up what we can do in all the three veneers before laying the first brick.
And do note that it is a dynamic - what the world wants is a moving target. A laid brick is completely stationary.
Mega.
ReplyDeleteYes, when it's mega it sounds good. The other day i was travelling down from senai airport. A friend was pointing or rather circling with his finger on Iskandar. I just nodded and smiled. I will wait....
My Goodness!! We don't even have the money to build the 2nd penang bridge...what more with having to finance this North Corridor thingy!! Enough with all these mega projects already, give us taxpayers something solid and more believable, like lower the samn petro price and toll rates!!!
ReplyDeletewalla
ReplyDeleteIt's not that easy.
For starters, you don't want the rural sector in Msia to go the way of farmers in the US, Japan and the EU where they are protected against foreign competition and receive billions in subsidies. Why? Because they form a sizeable bloc of votes.
So, agriculture has to go high-tech and high productivity. How many of our farmers can do this without govt assistance or without funding from the banks?
Next, as children in the rural sector get more and more educated, they would look for high-paying jobs in the manufacturing and servce sectors of the economy - which are centred around cities. Just see how the small rural towns in the US, Canada and Australia have hollowed out as the kids migrate to the big cities for studies and jobs.
The solution to this to spread development around the country so that all sectors - rural and urban - benefit. Which means jobs, and more jobs and ramping up of skills and productivity to a point where the services sector is dominant in the Msian economy.
skil,
ReplyDeletethat's not much different from what i had said - except i asked that:
- more thought be focused on what are to be made under the new projects;
- more awarenesss on the timelines when we start importing oil by 2011, in which case even whether this govt can fund 20% of the PFI-ed projects may be questioned;
- more effort be made on exact quantifiable take-homes for the rural folks.
Right now it looks more like hype to slush funds which no one seems to know will come from where. Imagine, we are talking mega-billions and the funding part is a black hole. No details on the PFIs. Is it privatisation, BOO, BOT or what?
Secondly, they talk about generating 1.5 million new jobs, and in the same breath envisioning Perlis as a diamond and Kedah as the Holland of Asia; something about a seed-making industry. But they never said how they arrive at this number of 1.5 million jobs; surely it can't be all about making seeds, and also, there can't be that much revenue you can get in the next four years from this sort of activity. And if you say these new jobs will still be agriculture - planting, and processing of agricultural products - maybe some new factories, then the question to ask is how much can be made from such activities that will justify spending so much on agriculture-based infrastructure?
My greater concern is that they're just showing how precarious is our national situation. It's so challenging that thinking about the vote impact should take second priority, but if that's the way they do central planning, putting first whether they will get popular, as opposed to a completely coldblooded and candid look at where we are and where we want to go, then we have indeed a monumental problem beyond just trying to reach 2020.
We shouldn't be looking at voters; we should be looking at workers; and if as you say it's about making this economy more services-centric/majoritised, then we will have to go back and look at training, equation, etc.
Right now, we don't even have enough of good trainers, and our education system seems to be shifting sideways to make it easier for children NOT to develop basic knowledge-acquiring/appreciation skills but just about community project management and social volunteering. How is that to translate to techno-fascination, a linchpin to making the workforce more skilled in areas which require more technology and informatisation, the twin pillars some will say towards building more valueadds?
I also read that what you're saying is that the projects will start with agro in the rural and then expand into services in the urban. Maybe you can expand on that in the light of (a) what you see is the current situation in the northern states, and please include Perak as a counterpoint, and (b) what you envision will Malaysia look like in the two sectors of anufacturing and in services in the year 2020.
I think this topic is important but i don't want to hog anymore the discussion and will abbreviate my posts.
Kalah tidak mengapa, chara (style)mahu.
ReplyDelete