Cyberjaya: Miles to go before they reap

Patrick Chalmers

CYBERJAYA, (Malaysia): If a coffee shop, retail mall and miles of new roads
tracked by sub-surface fibre optic cable are what it takes for Malaysia to rival
California's Silicon Valley then watch out, Bill Gates and friends. But chances
are they needn't worry yet.

Five years into ambitious plans for a home-grown, high tech hothouse, great
tracts of oil palm trees have been cleared but little progress made towards
spawning future world beaters like Gates's software giant Microsoft. Various
local technology companies say the country's Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC)
project, whose aims they generally share and support has got the focus wrong.

Their voices won't feature in this week's annual meeting of the MSC's
international advisory panel, where tech thoroughbreds like US computer maker
Dell and chip manufacturer Intel, Finland's cellular phone firm Nokia and
Japan's NEC Corp will pitch in with their ideas.

The MSC, a 15-by-50 km (9-by-31 mile) zone stretching from capital Kuala
Lumpur south to the airport, aims to attract world-class technology companies to
aid national plans for developed-country status by 2020.

With development and infrastructure, worth 28 billion Ringgit or $7.4
billion, the project includes a Hollywood-style studio to lure Asian filmmakers,
but the plan has languished since a star-studded launch last year.

Developing faster than expected

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad admitted recently the zone, one of his pet
projects, had not yet contributed as much to the economy as hoped but said it
was developing faster than expected.

Suhaimee Abu Hassan, president of Xybase, a Malaysian systems integration
company with a successful Internet-based, airport e-commerce platform, is
outspoken in his criticism.

"I think it's still very much focused on real estate," he said of
the corridor, which starts in the Petronas Twin Towers above Kuala Lumpur City
Centre (KLCC). "Being in KLCC and Cyberjaya, the cost is enormous. The only
ones who can afford it are the bigger guys but what about the start-ups?"

Winning MSC status for a firm secures tax holiday benefits, easier rules on
expatriate staff employment and funding for research. But it comes at the cost
of relocation into the zone. "If you want to encourage all these start-up
companies, get them a cheap place. Split Cyberjaya in two, one for the poor
people and one for people who can afford it," says Suhaimee.

He criticised the award of project contracts for the zone as having favored a
chosen few and chided MSC mandarins in the Multmedia Development Corporation (MDC)
for their sluggishness. No one at MDC was available last week to respond to
questions by telephone and e-mail or even in person.

Mark Chang, CEO of Internet recruitment site JobStreet.com, welcomes the
government's focus on building a knowledge economy but rejects the idea of
moving his company from the northwestern state of Penang just for MSC status.

More areas needed

"Not a lot of companies would be able to move without losing their
human resources," he said. "The MSC should open up more areas around
the country, not just one or two parks."

Once.cc founder and CEO Bobby Pang, a multi-channel e-commerce service
provider launched last year, also backs the MSC concept though without having
checked it out for his firm. "There's no sense of urgency because we don't
see the immediate benefit to our business," he told Reuters by cellular
phone on a business trip to Bangalore, one of southern India's tech zones and a
regional rival to Malaysia's efforts.

Gripes about the MSC's focus, its relocation requirements or even its
immediate relevance to companies are all problems offering a reasonable chance
of early solution. Trickier for Malaysia, in the medium term, may be the quality
of its local labor pool.

Bernama news agency recently quoted a Malaysian Science and Technology
Information Centre survey of 5,000 members of the public, conducted last year,
showing a steady fall in knowledge of science and technology issues since 1996.
Public awareness of the MSC itself also declined, dropping from 33 per cent to
27 per cent in 2000, the survey said.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.