According to OECD, the industries identified as high technology sectors include the pharmaceutical, medical, precision, and optical instruments industry, the radio, television, and communication equipment industry, the aircraft and spacecraft industry, and the office, accounting, and computing machinery industry. During the UK visit in June 2019, the Prime Minister has said Malaysia is seeking investments in high technology in line with the country’s goal to provide high income for its people (Othman). The investments, he said, were necessary to boost the country’s growth. Malaysia was a business-friendly nation and ready to fine-tune its policies to accommodate investors. Coupled with a better trained work force, he expressed confidence that investors would find Malaysia a comfortable investment destination. The country now shifted towards a high technology, knowledge-intensive, high value-added and capital-intensive industrial base. Emphasising on digital transformation, integrating local businesses into international supply chains, as well as creating more skilled job opportunities for local talents. High technology industries ensure the production of exportable products, enhance international competitiveness of countries, attract qualified labour
force, and ensure production of high value-added products. These are related to complex processing of raw materials, innovative activities, as well as translation of research and technology (R&T) into various spill overs. High Technology vs. Industry 4.0 What exactly is the difference between high technology industries and Industry 4.0? High technology is a generic term referring to diverse industrial classifications and innovations driven by the technology intensiveness on R&D expenditure over the production output of the value added. Whereas Industry 4.0 comparatively is a term globally used to define the fourth revolution that has occurred in manufacturing. From the first industrial revolution (mechanisation through water and steam power) to the mass production and assembly lines using electricity in the second, the fourth industrial revolution will take what was started in the third with the adoption of computers and automation and enhance it with smart and autonomous systems fuelled by data and machine learning (Marr, 2018). Industry 4.0 unfolds – computers are connected and communicate with one
What is High Technology?
Technology is derived from two Greek words — techne and logia. Techne means art, skill or craft, and logia refers to the study of [a certain subject]. Linking to its historical root, technology simply means the application of scientific knowledge to produce something beneficial. In the book entitled “Society and Technology Change”, Volti (2013) defines technology as “a system created by humans that uses knowledge and organisation to produce objects and techniques for the attainment of specific goals.” Organisation of Economic Corporation & Development (OECD) subsequently used high technology terms to classify industriesforitstechnologyintensiveness on Research and Development (R&D) expenditure over the production output of the value added (Loschky, 2010). In other words, what makes a certain technology in industries belong in either high or low or somewhere in-between, is their R&D intensity spending and usage. A high technology product is a subset of a product that involves the application of modern scientific and technical knowledge for beneficial purposes and often requires high R&D investments.
THE COUNTRY NOW SHIFTED TOWARDS A HIGH TECHNOLOGY, KNOWLEDGE-INTENSIVE, HIGH VALUE-ADDED AND CAPITAL- INTENSIVE INDUSTRIAL BASE.
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Malaysian Technology Strategic Outlook 2019/2020 Intergration of High Technology
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