Be it Google in Malaysia, or a Malaysian startup in TechCrunch50.

Malaysia is ranked at a mere no.36 in IT industry competitiveness index 2008, among 66 countries being sampled. We remain unchanged from the position in 2007.



We are no.8 in Asia-Pacific, in which Taiwan has emerged as no.1 with previous Asia leader Japan slipped to no.5.



The scoring is being calculated based on the following categories (weights) respectively:

• Business environment (10%)
• IT infrastructure (20%)
• Human capital (20%)
• Legal environment (10%)
• R&D environment (25%)
• Support for IT industry development (15%)

Our overall score dropped from 34.9 in 2007, to 34.2 in 2008. The 2 categories that we are moving backwards from 2007 are human capital and R&D environment.



Why we are behind?

• Openness and transparent regulation is not being extended throughout our economy.
• Telecom monopolies which are not opening up the marketplace.
• Personal computer and broadband uptakes are still relatively slow.
• Sub-standard local universities and the overall education system in Malaysia.
• Many students and young professionals migrate to countries with better career-development prospects and higher pay scales.
• Weak IP protection which is risky for foreign investment as well as domestic startups.
• Lack of private sector investment in research & development.

How to improve?

• Better tax incentives or advantages to attract foreign direct investment as well as local innovations.
• Telecoms deregulation and proactive broadband strategies to spur infrastructure development.
• Review our education system with open minds and build world class universities, better still combined with a strong venture capital system.
• Encourage investing foreign companies to work closely with schools and universities in order to improve our skills base, like what IBM did recently.
• Train technologists with not just technical but also business and management skills.
• A change of social behaviour is more effective on countering IP offences where people no longer talk with pride about copying someone's design.

For complete benchmarking report, you can download the PDF from here.