CA對2008年財政預算案的回應

CA Malaysia Lauds Focus on Human Capital Development
Queenie Wong, Managing Director Company, CA Malaysia:

With Budget 2008, we applaud the Government's continued emphasis for ICT development in Malaysia. The introduction of incentives to encourage investment and build a skilled human capital base in the ICT sector augurs well for the country, and will certainly strengthen the nation's regional and global competitiveness.

There are 3 key incentives that we feel will have a significant impact:

In relation to developing A Skilled Workforce

As the IT services, software and hardware segments are experiencing strong growth, we see the focus on improving the skills and technical capabilities of the Malaysian workforce as essential in sustaining this positive development. Due to the strong growth, Malaysia is inviting more foreign companies to invest in the country, hence the need for more skilled workers.

Thus, we thank the Government for the setting up of the Knowledge Workers Development Institute in Cyberjaya, as a means to ensuring an adequate supply of skilled workers for the ICT industry. The Government's move to encourage and facilitate the entry of skilled workers from abroad is another positive.

We will continue our efforts to share our knowledge and best practices from around the world and assist the Government and local companies in better adopting ICT and best practices as well as the skills base of their workforce. This is a collective responsibility of both the ICT industry, the Government and the local companies, and will serve to improve the delivery of services and the development of high quality solutions to drive the performance and growth of the economy.

CA's ongoing partnership with Multimedia University (MMU) in a course-sharing initiative and establishment of labs, is part of our commitment to sharing our resources and expertise with the future generation. A well-educated, skilled workforce will possess the ability to innovate and compete; developing and supplying innovative ICT products and services in a challenging global market.

Thus we applaud the allocation of RM12 billion provided for higher education projects and programmes in areas such as research and development. This is another positive measure in the effort to enhance the human capital base in the country.

In relation to Capacity Building of SMEs

The country's continued ability to attract global ICT companies has significantly improved our global alliances as well as growth in the industry. Local businesses, particularly SMEs, will continue to have the opportunity to gain expertise and knowledge on the latest in technology and best practices in the ICT industry, and provide the impetus for SMEs to be part of the global supply chain of these global leaders.

The continued focus of the Government on developing SMEs will further drive this sector as a key engine of economic growth for our nation. Whilst the drive to encourage SMEs to implement and adopt ICT, as a means of making ICT the business enabler and to better align processes, is a continuous process, we feel that multinationals such as CA can also assist SMEs to unify and simplify the management of IT services and support. We are pleased that SMEs are positively adopting ICT and they would see this as a competitive advantage. This would enable the SMEs to focus their resources on the business and keep abreast with industry trends.

In relation to continued investment in ICT infrastructure

Many factors attribute to Malaysia as a preferred SSO Hub. These include the infrastructure, political stability and a skilled multilingual workforce. In particular, the reaffirmed commitment of the Government to continuously invest in upgrading the physical and technology infrastructure will provide a strong base for the expansion of the ICT sector. The Government's support will certa inly serve to attract more global players to set up their SSO Hub in Malaysia.

We see the further reduction in the tax rate as another positive step in further fostering a pro-business environment, not only to entice companies to do business in the country, but also spur the growth of local businesses.