THE TIMES OF INDIA

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2003

Malaysia's new blueprint for its Silicon Valley

AP

CYBERJAYA: Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Friday that Malaysia's
version of Silicon Valley has exceeded expectations in its first seven years
and would soon expand to better serve a globalised market and create
higher-paying jobs.

Backed by international experts, Mahathir said Malaysia's Multimedia Super
Corridor would enter a so-called Phase Two beginning next year through 2010,
under the supervision of his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is scheduled
to succeed him later this year.

``The key thing is to go global and develop the necessary innovative
capabilities,'' Mahathir told a news conference after two days of annual
talks with representatives from multinational companies involved in the
project, including Oracle, Sun Microsystems, DHL, Intel and Microsoft.

The Multimedia Super Corridor is a business zone spanning 780 square
kilometers running from the Petronas Twin Towers, the world's tallest
buildings, in the north to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in the
south.

The centerpiece is Cyberjaya, a city set amid oil palm plantations just
south of Kuala Lumpur. It offers tax breaks and grants to companies and
researchers from around the world that move here.

Mahathir said that when the project was conceived in the 1990s, officials
aimed to attract 500 companies by 2003. Now, there are 920 companies
attached, including more than 50 multinationals, he said.

The project has generated 21,000 jobs this year, up from 17,000 in 2002,
Mahathir said. The government estimates participating companies will enjoy
total sales of 5.85 billion ringgit ($1.54 billion) in 2003.

Most company representatives on Friday praised the project's progress and
underlined the importance for the Multimedia Super Corridor to increase its
business infrastructure, develop products that meet the global market's
needs and improve links with similar projects around the world.

Bob Bishop, chief executive of California-based computer maker Silicon
Graphics, said Malaysian scientists and engineers involved in the project
have shown ``quite phenomenal'' technical know-how and should continue to
``raise their capability to compete globally.''

Mahathir said proposals for the project's next phase include expanding the
Multimedia Super Corridor's districts that foreign companies could set up
operations in other parts of Malaysia and still reap the benefits of being
attached with the project.

Companies would also hire and train more Malaysians for high-skilled jobs
that offer better salaries to help the country achieve its ambition of
becoming a knowledge-based society before 2020, Mahathir said.

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