Media statement by Tony Pua Kiam Wee in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 15^th December 2011:

MOSTI should redirect its efforts to liberalise the Government and GLC procurement of information technology products and services

We welcome the move by the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili to clarify that MOSTI would discard the controversial Bill if the industry can find a better way to boost the local industry towards meeting world-class standards.

There are certainly many more obvious policy measures which could be adopted to "boost the local industry towards meeting world-class standards" which are better many times better than the half-baked idea of setting up a Board of Computing Professionals (BCP) to impose regulations on the industry.

The first is to deal with the "supply" issue of the quality of graduates who intend to participate in the computing industry. It is one of the biggest paradoxes in the Malaysian job market when the largest pool of unemployed university graduates are those holding computing-related qualifications, and yet there is a demand for thousands of computer-related positions advertised in local newspapers and job-recruitment portals.

Based on statistics compiled by the Ministry of Human Resources (MoHR) in 2006, computer science graduates formed the largest percentage of the graduates who are seeking employment. 19.5% out of 20,217 who were registered, took degrees in computer science disciplines.

A separate study by the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) presented in 2009 showed that 22.8% of computer science graduates in 2008, numbering 1,217 failed to secure employment. This number is once again larger than unemployed graduates from any other discipline, corroborating the data from MoHR.

The setting up of a BCP will however, not in any way improve the quality of our graduates. Instead, MOSTI should perhaps work with MoHE to improve the rigour of our academic courses as well as tightening the criteria for entry into computer science related courses.

The second is to deal the "demand" issue where there exists an unequal playing field in the procurement of computer-related products and services by the Government. The Government and the Government-linked companies (GLCs) form the single largest buyer of such products and services in the country.

Without a level playing field, highly innovative and quality companies will find it almost impossible to penetrate the Government and GLC market, which typically favour politically-connected companies. Without very limited access to the single largest market in the country, these IT companies will find it extremely challenged to scale in size, so as to secure a foothold to challenge the global markets.

In fact, the lack of market access is one of the main causes of the lack of success of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) status companies. Critics have argued "what is the point of being bestowed the MSC status by the Government, when the Government itself does not welcome the MSC companies' participation in the Government sector".

By providing a quality supply of knowledge workers for the IT industry, and by levelling the playing field for IT companies in taking part in the Government market, the competitiveness of the industry will improve by leaps and bounds.

On the other hand, the continued protection of the Government market as well as a higher education policy focused on quantity rather than quality coupled with the misguided attempt by MOSTI to set up a BCP to further shackle the Malaysian computing talents, will only lead to further mediocrity and a loss of skills to other countries.

MOSTI should immediately withdraw the impractical and impossible Computing Professionals Bill 2011 for it will have no positive bearing on making our IT industry more dynamic and competitive. Instead it should focus on creating a more competitive environment where only the most skilled and innovative survive on a level playing field.

* Tony Pua Kiam Wee, DAP National Publicity Secretary & MP for Petaling Jaya Utara