Despite our small economy and still modest technological capabilities, we have made some significant progress in enhancing South-South economic and technical cooperation to help reduce the divides between nations, in particular among developing economies.

Our Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP), launched in 1980 at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in New Delhi to help share our experiences with other developing countries, has enhanced cooperation, especially in capacity building.

Capacity building, especially in the areas of human capital and human resource development, is essential to mobilise other resources and factors into the production and wealth-creation processes.

It is for this purpose that the MTCP has focused on skills training, study visits, attachments and providing facilities for higher education in very specialised fields. Currently, 138 countries are members of the MTCP and they include nations from Africa, South Asia, Latin America, Middle East, Central Asia and, of course, Asean.

The MTCP has also undertaken specific capacity-building projects where no such capacity existed before. Such capacity is critical and important. One project we set up was Smart schools in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. They have been established to expose students to the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in learning and in education. The project entails setting up special classes with computers, servers, overhead LCD projectors and printers. It further entails the training of teachers or trainers who will impart skills and develop more content based on the skills they have acquired.

It is heartening that the authorities in these countries have accepted the importance of these projects and incorporated them into their overall social development efforts. Myanmar has escalated the programme to cover a greater number of schools, while Vietnam has incorporated Smart schools into their overall ICT master plan.

The Lao PDR authority has created several community-based programmes leveraging on the Smart schools, while Cambodia has enlarged its trainers programme for teachers.

Malaysia also ensures that local capacity for maintenance and repair work is built so that once the assistance is completed, the projects are sustained and can be expanded or scaled up.

The recent United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Seminar on South-South Cooperation and Exposition in New York on Dec 18, last year picked our Smart school project as one of the projects worthy of being recognised and rewarded for its contribution to South-South Cooperation.

Indeed, this is a recognition of our efforts to share our development experiences with other developing nations in capacity building in diverse fields such as business, public administration and economic management, trade, diplomacy, central banking, livestock and fisheries, information technology, and even in the area of fire-fighting, archiving and prison management.

Altogether, more than 100 programmes are available under the MTCP, and to date we have trained about 20,500 personnel from more than 130 countries.

These programmes are our contribution to the overall social and economic development of developing countries under the South-South cooperation initiative. We wish we could do much more for our friends in the other areas of cooperation technology development. Perhaps we can move into this area in the future.

We are happy to note that there is an increasing demand for participation in the programmes. At present, resource constraints – especially the budgetary allocation for the programme – makes it difficult for us to expand the MTCP much more. In the future, we will explore more opportunities for third-party assistance or multilateral assistance, like the UNDP and JICA, through cost-sharing arrangements, to support the MTCP.
Indeed, I must acknowledge, they have begun to support us already.

It is in this spirit that we feel honoured with the UNDP award for our Smart school project. What is also important to us is that the programme and others like it have made significant contributions to capacity building among participating countries in their striving for social betterment.

The MTCP will continue to have a special place in our international relations consistent with our policy of prospering our neighbours and others, too.

The writer is director-general of the Economic Planning Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department