Page 211 - VC Message

Home of the Bright. Land of the Brave

Di Sini Bermulanya Pintar, Tanah Tumpahnya Berani

• the geography gaps that isolate rural and remote communities from education,
health, and digital infrastructure;
• the governance gaps where good intentions falter amid bureaucratic
fragmentation;
• the societal gaps that leave women, indigenous peoples, migrants, and the
elderly excluded from the development cycle;
• and the literacy and digital divides that threaten to make the promise of the
digital economy a privilege of the few.
8. Even within our cities, a new form of urban poverty is emerging—among gig
workers, informal settlers, and displaced workers—whose struggles are hidden
behind the metrics of modernity.
9. The ASEAN region cannot break free from the grip of inequality unless it escapes
the middle-income trap that has held back most of its economies for over two
decades. Too much of our growth still depends on resource extraction, low-value
assembly lines, and export-oriented models built on cheap labour and foreign
capital. This path has reached its ceiling. Productivity gains are slowing, wages
remain stagnant, and the promise of social mobility has flattened.
10. To move forward, ASEAN must reinvent its economic foundations—shifting
from exporting raw materials to exporting intelligence; from depending on
natural endowments to creating technological ones. Only through high-value
manufacturing, advanced services, and regional technology transfer can we raise
incomes and build resilience against future shocks.
11. The ASEAN region still spends less than 1% of GDP on research and development,
compared to 3% in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) economies. This gap reflects a lack of innovation intensity—and closing 203
it is no longer optional, it is existential.
12. The future demands a new synergy—between high-tech industries, education, and
human capital transformation. Our economies must grow not just by producing
more, but by producing smarter. Yet this transformation must also address another
looming reality: an ageing population and a shrinking youth workforce. By 2035,
nearly one in five Malaysians, and a quarter of the people in Thailand, will be
over 60 years old, while fertility rates across ASEAN continue to decline.
13. Global military expenditure has surpassed US$2.4 trillion in 2024, the highest in
history, while global aid for poverty eradication and social development combined
stands at less than US$200 billion. That means for every dollar spent on fighting
poverty, twelve dollars are spent on weapons.
14. Even within ASEAN, defence spending grew by 52% over the past decade, while
investments in social protection and rural education barely reached 1% of GDP in
most member states. The imbalance is not of resources, but of priorities. We are
perfecting the art of deterrence but neglecting the architecture of human dignity.
We have built stronger armies, but not stronger communities.
15. To truly redefine poverty eradication, we must move beyond the reactive cycle of
aid and response, and instead adopt anticipatory foresight. Poverty is no longer
static—it evolves with technology, climate change, and demography. The Asian
Development Bank warns that climate change alone could push another 11 million
ASEAN citizens into poverty by 2030. Automation and artificial intelligence could
displace half of low-skilled jobs within the next decade.
16. We must also leverage automation, AI, digital industries, and lifelong learning
ecosystems that allow older citizens to remain economically active while younger
generations move up the value chain.Without foresight, we risk replacing one
form of poverty with another—digital exclusion, climate displacement, and loss of
dignity through unemployment.