PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
CAPACITY
BUILDING
A
midst the world economic slowdown, the
creation of new funding sources such as
the US$100 billion Asia Infrastructure
Investment Bank, the US$50 billion Maritime
Silk Road Fund and the New Development Fund
has created new expectation. There will be new
waves of infrastructure works and manufacturing
industries across the Asian region. Malaysia
with her strategic geographic location along the
Maritime Silk Road stands to benefit from these
new initiatives.
It then begs the question of Malaysia’s
readiness to tap into the new opportunities within
and outside the country. This issue on “Capacity
Building” is timely in assessing Malaysia’s position
and the outlook in taking on the new wave of
construction and manufacturing projects within
Southeast Asia and beyond.
The article on logistic notes Malaysia’s standing
on the Logistic Performance Index occupying 25th
position and reflects Malaysia’s attractiveness as
a strong trading partner for global trading nations
as well as a manufacturing base along the global
value chain where logistic support is essential.
The One Belt One Road initiative emphasizes
good connectivity for which strong logistic support
among others such as talent pool, utilities and
custom clearance efficiency are important factors
for global choice in setting up a manufacturing
base and service industries.
The interview with Secretary General II (KSU
II) of Ministry of Education Malaysia revealed
the Government’s plan to increase the annual
intake of TVET students from 164,000 in 2013 to
225,000 in 2020 to support industries is a good
move taking on developed countries’ experience in
sustaining a strong economy requires strong TVET
support.
With world trade trending strongly towards
e-commerce, the article on “Good practice
for promoting regional co-operation in space
application for sustainable urban development,
water resources management and transportation
management” concludes that it is essential to
continuously invest in capacity building for new
technology.
As my first message in this publication as the
President of BEM, I wish you all well and hope
you will continue to support this publication by
contributing informative articles to share with the
engineering fraternity.
Datuk Ir. Adanan bin Mohamed Hussain
President BEM
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