Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (July 13): The key reason Cyberjaya failed was because the government had tried to create a flourishing hub from scratch instead of supporting the development of naturally emerging hubs, a report by the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) found.

In the report titled Create or Nurture? Lessons from Cyberjaya: Malaysia's Promised Silicon Valley, the think tank considered the evidence on what makes hubs like Silicon Valley successful and applied those lessons to Cyberjaya.

The report further asserted its point by highlighting several examples of successful industrial clusters launched within Malaysia, in which the government has played a supportive role, but not necessarily creating them from scratch.

"Malaysia has enjoyed steady and impressive rise in ICT exports, however most of this rise may not be attributed to the Cyberjaya. It (Cyberjaya) has had some success in creating jobs and attracting investment, but has ultimately failed in its objective of creating a world-leading IT entrepreneurial hub," the report noted.

"Cyberjaya was a grand ambition that has ultimately fallen short. Whilst it has created jobs and investment, it has not become the world leading innovation hub that was envisioned," Ali Salman, CEO of IDEAS and author of the report, said in a press statement today.

"The new government should learn lessons from this experience and pursue policies that allow the enormous potential of Malaysia's private sector to flourish, rather than trying to manage it directly," he concluded.

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