The Land of the Rising Star

This post might be a little boring or somewhat similar to some of my previous posts. But the intention of this post is just to highlight while keeping abreast of the latest development in South East Asia's economy. While it is undoubted that Singapore is the fastest growing economy the region, another country which has kept investors worldwide scrutinizing its economic pace is Vietnam. With its current GDP moving at around 7%, that means this once agricultural economy which relies heavily on rice cultivation, would be one of the most developed in SEA in the next 10 to 15 years. It is already one of the fastest developing economy in the world, and with its current economic leberalisation, Vietnam's economy could reach up to 70% of UK's economy by 2025, given the potential GDP growing at a rate of about 10% per annum.

So here are some info that amazed me on how the country is transforming to a modern asian city in full gear of moving into the globalised world; the population is growing by a million each year, the country's middle class is growing fast and those living below the poverty line is rapidly declining - overtaking The Philippines and India, the literacy rate is about 93% up till 2008, small cities are expanding rapidly, new international airport is being constructed, multinationals beginning to invest - bringing in manufacturing, IT and high-tech industries on the rise and stock market chart just goes up and up (ok that's just a little exaggeration). Nontheless, doesnt that sound impressive enough for a country who suffered from the famous Vietnam War and French collonialisation? You be the judge.

So what's the big deal for Malaysia? The question is now can Malaysia get the slice of pie in the challenging global economy, given this kind of emerging countries are closing their gap with developed nations. Malaysia's GDPs have been quite daunting for the past few years, at 5% growth, we are no where near to become a fully developed nation by 2020. However, step up measures are already in place to drive the nation forward and join the ranks of developed nations. But most Malaysian are very well educated now, a blueprint is just an empty promise until real works are being executed and well drawn policies are adhered to. But then again, its the results that the rakyat of Malaysia would like to see, in which how we could benefit from the planning.

Undeniably, globalisation is something which the whole world must embrace, like it or not. Europe and America are matured and well developed economies, the rising stars now lie in Asia, where the new land of opportunities reside. It is a pleasure to see how each region in Asia, given its enormous size with different cultures and religions, are synchronising and competing uniquely to be on par with developed nations, if not better.

Confession

I've tried to confess to someone through unspoken words. Of course, there was the adrenaline rush.

Rejuvenating in a long weekend is exciting. Being on the bed most of the time is trully relaxing. People say that we should never think about work during holiday, but does anyone never ever think about work when they're on holiday? As much fun as I have during holiday, but work keeps coming into my mind occassionally, but its easy to forget about it in just few minutes. I personally feel that watching too much tv would ruin the long weekend, instead, snoozing around under a blanket is a wonderful way of making yourself comfortable at home. Well, we dont get to take nap after lunch at the office, dont we, though we tend to doze off for a second or two due to the mamak curry we just ate during lunch.
There's also another reason why most of the time during long weekend should be spent at home, not at shopping malls or movie places, coz u get to go to the kitchen and make ureself a deliciously delicious sandwich or a cup of hot milo and then bring it back to ure room , if not in front of the tv enjoying shows u never knew existed until its already at their last episode. While if you're at the mall, the best part is u gotta meet ure frens and chatting the whole day as if there's no tomorrow, but you tend to be very tired once u reach home and might also have spent more than expected.
A lovely escapade to the refreshing hills would be great too!

Life is so ironic. Does Law of Attraction really implies to all humankind? Well if its a law, no one could challenge it. I believe its true, never ever have the thoughts that you would never want to see a particular thing/subject/item/whatever thing lah. It got me backfired.
Back in school, up to the very last day of university, or perhaps right after my graduation, I told myself I would never ever work with numbers again, I mean financial/accounting numbers. Numbers are okay as long as they are related to science or maths, but financial modeling stuff, a BIG no no...so I want to put it as far as eye can see.

So, nak dijadikan cerita, here I am working as a Business Development Executive, whose work is to do market and trend analysis and number crunching. In layman terms, I'm dealing with financial modeling, balance sheet, income statement and even perhaps forecasting the profitability of a project through financial modeling. Its completely contradictory from what I've told myself before. To make things more interesting, I find financial stuff to be really interesting, you could question and defend every single thing based on facts and figures. Of course, there is always a twist. Since I'm working in a R&D company, sometimes there is a need to compromise on the technology wise to fit the budget and achieve the bottom-line. Given that I have a background in science, I would understand the predicament faced by scientists when trying to explain to the top management on the viability of having a particular technology to spearhead the research. So, sometimes there is a need to understand and accept scientists argument as they know best. On the other hand, what the management think about are only profit, yet they need things to be done fast. The complexity of my work makes every day interesting as we discover many new things and how are we moving in the fast paced world.

carving the future

I have been reading about how today's successful people became successful. It was nothing less than inspiring. These people have most things in common; they started with a hard life. So hard that if any of us hear or read their stories would think that they would never have a bright future.
JK Rowling, any Harry Potter fan would know her as a creative writer who magically spellbound the whole world with her enchanted story of witchcraft and wizardry series. But she didnt get where she is now through easy way. She survived under welfare and almost penniless, divorced and had to raise her child. But her determination paid so well that she is now among the richest woman in the world.
Indeed, stories like this make us think, how successful are we now and did we achieve it the right way? Should we go through those painful period to be successful? But what about those who were born with silver spoon fed in their mouth, could they be successful, too? I personally agree that no matter how depressing or embarrassing the time that we have to endure, there must be a reason. Maybe some of us would look back at our school/college/university days, we were embarrassed by the cool kids, speak with grammatical error all over the place, or even extremely under dressed when we see our friends with their gorgeous outfit and cutting edge mobile phone(s). And when we look now how much have we progressed throughout the years, we know that it is never easy to get where we are now. Let others say we could only afford to dream sky high, but if we put all our efforts in it, determination and most importantly our relationship to God, the sky is the limit, and let them see in the future how much we can prove to them and whose looking up to who.

i dont know if you know

This is a completely wrong emotional battle. Confusion and living in a situation where there are no asnwers lying in front of us is extremely disturbing.

I do realize I may look and sound the same treating you like i'm treating everyone else. But to me, you're different. Though I've tried something different, it hasnt been that obvious yet. But will it be? Because if its very obvious, the reactions might be unpredictable. So lets just see how things are going, because the real truth is impossible.