An Analysis Of Global Competitiveness In Malaysian Manufacturing

Malaysian manufacturing started early,it has advantages of low labor force cost,relatively completed infrastructural facilities,and government support,but also suffers from unstable political situation,relatively weak research and development ability,and technology talents shortage.During recent years,Malaysia has already made a ground in high-end manufacturing of electronics manufacturing and aerospace,but its overall manufacturing industry has been under pressure because of world economy downturn.From year 2015 to 2016,according to several global competitiveness rankings of different international organizations like World Economic Forum and United Nations Industrial Development Organization,Malaysia is taking the head of developing countries in both country competitiveness and manufacturing competitiveness.At the same time,developed countries in Europe and America re-recognize the important role the manufacturing played in promoting technology and employments,and begin to encourage "Industry Backflow".Developing countries like Malaysia are facing a double challenge of high-end manufacturing moving back to developed countries and low-end manufacturing upgrading.Under this circumstance,this paper tries to analyze Malaysian competitiveness level in high-tech,medium-tech and low-tech manufacturing,referring to Porter's competitiveness theory and competitiveness analysis frameworks of several international organizations.The analysis includes 4 dimensions:trade,productivity and cost,technology and innovation,and macro economy.According to the analysis,Malaysian manufacturing has already divided internally,advantages of low-tech manufacturing are disappearing while competitiveness of high-tech manufacturing is increasing,especially in electronics manufacturing,Malaysia has advantages of proven technology and completed equipments,making it a good place to develop high-tech industries.Also,Malaysia has a high manufacturing productivity,it is Malaysian high tax,weak internal research and development ability and narrow financing channel and not its increasing labor force cost that truly limit Malaysian manufacturing competitiveness.At last,this paper makes a conclusion on Malaysian manufacturing competitiveness and lists several cooperation priorities among Malaysian and Chinese manufacturing.