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18 Februari, 2009 20:06 PM

Undi Sipadan Sebagai Alam Semula Jadi Ajaib Dunia

KOTA KINABALU, 18 Feb (Bernama) -- Ketua Menteri Datuk Seri Musa Aman meminta semua rakyat Malaysia memberikan undi mereka dalam satu kempen online www.new7wonders.com/nature bagi menyenaraikan Pulau Sipadan sebagai satu daripada tujuh keajaiban alam semula jadi dunia yang baru.

"Sipadan adalah permata dasar laut yang amat popular dalam kalangan penyelam di seluruh dunia. Kita seharusnya berbangga dengannya, dan sehubungan itu saya meminta semua orang termasuk pelancong memberikan undi bagi tujuh keajaiban alam semula jadi dunia yang baru," katanya dalam satu kenyataan di sini, Rabu.

Katanya rakyat Malaysia di Sabah perlu memberikan sokongan mereka terhadap kempen online ini dan mewujudkan kesedaran untuk mengundi destinasi pelancongan itu kerana pencalonan Sipadan sudah merupakan satu penghormatan.

Sipadan adalah satu daripada 261 calon bagi tujuh keajaiban alam semula jadi dunia yang baru bersama tarikan alam semula jadi lain seperti Ko Phi Phi di Thailand, Grand Canyon dan Air Terjun Niagara di Amerika Syarikat dan barisan terumbu karang besar, Great Barrier Reef di Australia.

"Saya dimaklumkan bahawa Sipadan dicalonkan oleh penyelam-penyelam yang pernah berkunjung ke sana. Saya pasti sejumlah penyelam asing memberikan pencalonan itu. Jika pelancong asing boleh memberi sokongan mereka, kita rakyat Malaysia seharusnya memberi sokongan penuh," katanya.

Musa turut mengarahkan pihak berkuasa memastikan ekosistem marin di sekitar Sipadan terus dilindungi.

sumber:BERNAMA

Ekonomi

Berapakah jumlah populasi Malaysia? Berapakah GDP dan GNP Malaysia? Apakah barangan yang paling banyak mengeksport dan Negara mana dieksport?
Population: 25,274,133 (July 2008 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 31.8% (male 4,135,013/female 3,898,761)
15-64 years: 63.3% (male 8,026,755/female 7,965,332)
65 years and over: 4.9% (male 548,970/female 699,302) (2008 est.)
Population growth rate: 1.742% (2008 est.)
Ethnic groups: Malay 50.4%, Chinese 23.7%, indigenous 11%, Indian 7.1%, others 7.8% (2004 est.)
Religions: Muslim 60.4%, Buddhist 19.2%, Christian 9.1%, Hindu 6.3%, Confucianism, Taoism, other traditional Chinese religions 2.6%, other or unknown 1.5%, none 0.8% (2000 census)
Languages: Bahasa Malaysia (official), English, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Hainan, Foochow), Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi, Thai
note: in East Malaysia there are several indigenous languages; most widely spoken are Iban and Kadazan
Economy - overview: Malaysia, a middle-income country, has transformed itself since the 1970s from a producer of raw materials into an emerging multi-sector economy. Since coming to office in 2003, Prime Minister ABDULLAH has tried to move the economy farther up the value-added production chain by attracting investments in high technology industries, medical technology, and pharmaceuticals. The Government of Malaysia is continuing efforts to boost domestic demand to wean the economy off of its dependence on exports. Nevertheless, exports - particularly of electronics - remain a significant driver of the economy. As an oil and gas exporter, Malaysia has profited from higher world energy prices, although the rising cost of domestic gasoline and diesel fuel forced Kuala Lumpur to reduce government subsidies. Malaysia "unpegged" the ringgit from the US dollar in 2005 and the currency appreciated 6% per year against the dollar in 2006-07. Although this has helped to hold down the price of imports, inflationary pressures began to build in 2007. Healthy foreign exchange reserves and a small external debt greatly reduce the risk that Malaysia will experience a financial crisis over the near term similar to the one in 1997. The government presented its five-year national development agenda in April 2006 through the Ninth Malaysia Plan, a comprehensive blueprint for the allocation of the national budget from 2006-10. With national elections expected within the year, ABDULLAH has unveiled a series of ambitious development schemes for several regions that have had trouble attracting business investment. Real GDP growth has averaged about 6% per year under ABDULLAH, but regions outside of Kuala Lumpur and the manufacturing hub Penang have not fared as well.
GDP (purchasing power parity): $357.4 billion (2007 est.)
GDP (official exchange rate): $186.5 billion (2007 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 6.3% (2007 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP): $13,300 (2007 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 9.9%
industry: 45.3%
services: 44.8% (2007 est.)
Labor force: 10.94 million (2007 est.)
Labor force - by occupation: agriculture: 13%
industry: 36%
services: 51% (2005 est.)
Unemployment rate: 3.2% (2007 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.1%
note: approximately 30% of goods are price-controlled (2007 est.)
Investment (gross fixed): 21.8% of GDP (2007 est.)
Budget: revenues: $40.69 billion
expenditures: $46.7 billion (2007 est.)
Public debt: 41.6% of GDP (2007 est.)

GDP: $308.8 billion.
Annual real GDP growth rate: 5.5%.
Per capita (GDP) income: $12,700.
Budget: Income.............. $31.63 billion
Expenditure ... $37 billion

Main Crops: Peninsular Malaysia—rubber, palm oil, rice; Sabah—subsistence crops, rubber, timber, coconuts, rice; Sarawak—rubber, pepper; timber.

Natural Resources: Tin, petroleum, timber, copper, iron ore, natural gas, bauxite.

Major Industries: Rubber and oil palm processing and manufacturing, light manufacturing industry, electronics, tin mining and smelting,
logging and processing timber; Sabah—logging, petroleum production; Sarawak—agriculture processing, petroleum production and refining, logging.
NATIONAL GNP
The Malaysian economy maintained its momentum growing 5.2% in 2003, after expanding 4.1% in 2002. In 2001, real GDP grew an anemic 0.3% due to global uncertainties. The better than expected expansion in 2003 was fueled primarily by the manufacturing sector, particularly the electronics and chemical industries. The recovery of the global electronics sector boosted Malaysian exports to the U.S., Malaysians’ principal trade and investment partner. The consensus among public and private sector analysts is that the economy will continue to grow by at least 6.0% to 6.5% in 2004, on strong domestic demand and global growth in major countries and regional economies but with reservations on continued high oil prices. Although Malaysia is a net exporter of oil, the significant and rapid hike in oil prices has increased the government’s burden on oil subsidies to the domestic consumers. The government has maintained the Malaysian ringgit pegged at an exchange rate of RM3.8/U.S.$1.0 since September 1998.

Malaysia remains an important trading partner for the United States. In 2003, bilateral trade between the United States and Malaysia totaled U.S. $36.4 billion. U.S. exports to Malaysia were $10.9 billion, and U.S. imports from Malaysia were $25.4 billion in that year. Malaysia was the United States' 10th-largest trading partner and its 16th-largest export market. During the first 6 months of 2004, U.S. exports to Malaysia totaled $5.5 billion while the United States imported $13 billion from Malaysia.

Malaysia successfully developed from a commodity-based economy to one focused on manufacturing. Today the Government of Malaysia seeks to make the leap to a knowledge-based economy. At independence, Malaysia inherited an economy dominated by two commodities--rubber and tin. In the 40 years thereafter, Malaysia's economic record had been one of Asia's best. From the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, the economy experienced a period of broad diversification and sustained rapid growth averaging almost 8% annually. New foreign and domestic investment played a significant role in the transformation of Malaysia's economy. Manufacturing grew from 13.9% of GDP in 1970 to 30.9 % in 2003, while agriculture and mining, which together had accounted for 42.7% of GDP in 1970, dropped to 8.4% and 7.2 %, respectively, in 2003. Malaysia is one of the world's largest exporters of semiconductor devices, electrical goods, and appliances, and the government has ambitious plans to make Malaysia a leading producer and developer of high-tech products, including software. Malaysia is a major destination for outsourcing after China and India.

The Malaysian Government encourages Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and the United States continues to be one of the largest sources of new investment in Malaysia. In 2003, the Malaysian Government approved U.S. $574 million in new manufacturing investment by U.S. companies, with the bulk in the electronics and electrical sectors. The cumulative value of U.S. private investment in Malaysia exceeds $20 billion, 60% of which is in the oil and gas and petrochemical sectors with the rest in manufacturing, especially semiconductors and other electronic products, according to an American Chamber of Commerce 2003 survey.

Ekonomi

Case Study: Organizational culture and incentives at Lincoln Electric.
What is the source of Lincoln’s long-standing competitive advantage in the United States market for arc welding equipment?

Lincoln’s Electric long-standing competitive advantage in the United State market achieved by a high productivity rate per worker. This company success had been on extremely high level of employee productivity.

Lincoln’s Electric apply incentive scheme based on piecework. The workers receive no based salary but depend on the number of pieces they produce. The piecework rates at the company enable an employee working at a normal pace to earn an income equivalent to the average rage for manufacturing worker in the area where the factory is based.

A company faces a quality aspect when it comes to incentive scheme based on piecework. But at Lincoln Electric’s the worker must repair or paid back any piecework that have defect. It means the workers must be responsible for their outputs.

The work culture in Lincoln Electric’s is one of the attributor. The company had a strong respect for the ability of the individual. Practicing open-door policy, the communication barriers between ‘workers’ and ‘managers’ were eliminated. All workers are treated equally despite of their position.

Since 1934, production workers have been awarded a semiannual bonus based on merit ratings. These rating are based on;
1. Objective criteria; example: employee’s level and quality of output.
2. Subjective criteria; example: employee’s attitude toward cooperation and his or her dependability.

This semiannual bonus motivates workers to perform better and work harder, resulting boost in productivity. Despite high employee compensation, the worker so productive than Lincoln has a lower cost than its competitors.

Why did Lincoln enter foreign markets through acquisitions and Greenfield ventures, rather than through exporting?

The Lincoln Electric’s did consider expanding into international market by exporting, but was told by foreign distributor that American equipment would not sell well in Europe. So instead the company decides to set up wholly owned subsidiaries and acquisitions to make the equipment locally.

Through acquisition, it was a quick way to execute. The company can rapidly built its presence in this targeted foreign market. Lincoln acquired seven arc welding manufacturers in Europe and one in Mexico. This move is the quickest way to make the equipment locally and introduce their product to the local market. Acquisition may be less risky because acquisition provides a set of assets that are producing a known revenue and profit stream. It also acquire valuable information such as manager’s knowledge about the local market environment.

Greenfield ventures gives the company a much greater ability to built the kind of subsidiary company that it wants. The backbone of Lincoln Electric’s success lies in its strong organization culture and a unique set of incentives. Thus, by applying Greenfield ventures can be much easier for Lincoln to build that organization. It is to change the culture of an acquired unit

Why did Lincoln’s foreign ventures fail to deliver the gains forecast?

The Lincoln may have overlooked the organizations cultural differences when the company decided to acquire the seven arc welding manufacturers in Europe and one in Mexico.

When the company acquires these arc welding manufacturers, Lincoln left local managers in place, believing that they knew local conditions better. But there have been told to imply Lincoln’s strong organizational culture and introduce its incentive system in acquired companies. Local managers had little working knowledge about Lincoln’s organizational culture and were unable or unwilling to impose that culture on their unit, which had their own long-established organizational culture.

The incentive system or work pieces were a problem to imply to it’s newly acquiring companies. The piecework was viewed as an exploitive compensation system that forces employees to work harder in other countries.

The strong organizational culture and the incentive system were the main reason why Lincoln Electric’s stand up upon other competitors. If these two elements cannot be imply or used in their newly acquire companies, this must be the reason why Lincoln’s foreign ventures fail to deliver the gain forecasted.

In retrospect, what might Lincoln have done differently to avoid the financial crisis it found itself in?

Before investing to a foreign country, Lincoln must first in vestige the foreign countries law relating to worker and working conditions. Also the company must know the foreign culture; it might be organizational culture or life culture itself.

Then decide what entry made is the most suitable for the company. When it comes to Lincoln Electrical, where strong organizational culture and incentive system were the backbone of it success, the most possible entry mode is through Greenfield.

Greenfield ventures give a much greater ability to build the kind of subsidiary company that it wants. Lincoln can introduce it organizational culture and incentive systems without a clash with another culture or system. While this strategy takes more time to execute, it yields greater long-run returns than the acquisition strategy.
What lessons can be gleaned from the Mexican venture?

International managers should understand better about the foreign culture that the company wants to invest in. Before foreign instruments are made, the company must understand fully about its culture and laws.

The local managers should be train or paid a visit to the successful factories in the America. They should be taught about the culture and the incentive system. Then the managers can imply these to the factories in their own country.

The culture can change slowly if truly it is a good culture. Worker can accept it if it more beneficial to them. The incentives systems are proven to make the worker more productive and make the worker earn more.

References
McDonald, F., & Burton, F. (2002). International Business (1st Ed.). London: Thomson.
Electric, T. L. (2008, October 1). Lincoln Electric Company. Retrieved October 1, 2008, from Lincoln Electric Company Web Site: http://www.lincolnelectric .com/

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