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10MP INCORPORATES BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY ELEMENTS, SAYS NOR MOHAMED

BERNAMA, Malaysian National News Agency, Mar 18, 2010

from BERNAMA, The Malaysian National News Agency PUTRAJAYA, March 18 (Bernama) -- The 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP), which is expected to be announced in June by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, incorporates several important elements and aspects of the Blue Ocean Strategy, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said today.

Under the Blue Ocean Strategy, an organisation can generate high growth and profits by creating new demand in an uncontested market space, or a "Blue Ocean", than by competing head-to-head with other suppliers for known customers in an existing industry.

Nor Mohamed said the Blue Ocean Strategy, which emphasised the effectiveness of thinking out of the box, had been applied indirectly since the country achieved independence more than 50 years ago.

"For example, we implemented the Amanah Saham Nasional; no other country has implemented this unit trust scheme. We introduced privatisation with priority given to bumiputeras; other countries privatised entities and sold them to foreigners," he told reporters after closing a Blue Ocean Strategy study, here.

He said the effectiveness of the Blue Ocean Strategy was most evident when the country faced the economic crisis in 1997 and 1998 and emerged unscathed as the only nation which rejected financial aid from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"Other countries had to swallow their pride and accept financial aid from the World Bank and IMF. Malaysia resorted to thinking out of the box and seeking formulas and rejected foreign aid and rehabilitated the economy in our own way.

"Eleven years later, when the Western countries faced a severe economic crisis, they emulated our ways which they had criticised in the first place when we had applied the Blue Ocean Strategy," he said.

Nor Mohamed said the strategy was most useful because modern thinking must be applied to face the ever-intensifying challenges of globalisation, particularly in meeting the objective to transform Malaysia into a developed country in the next 10 years.