SEPT 16 — I had the honour of speaking at two sessions at the Milken Institute Asia Summit, one was a private session “Global Investors’ View: ASEAN” and the other, a public “Regionalisation, Re-Globalisation, and Supply Chain Transformation” session.
The idea of “vertical integration” is about South-east Asian economies complementing each other in the manufacturing value chain, and Malaysia occupies the indispensable middle as we have a skilled, educated and English-speaking workforce, good logistics, stable society, and a predictable legal framework.
This once-in-a-generation shift should also generate more jobs with better pay, and eventually create a strong middle class in South-east Asia in a decade’s time.If we succeed by then, South-east Asia would not just be a production site but also a consumption site, which is a big consumer market.