Day 10 and 11- Kuala Lumpur (photos to come!)

I'm combining Days 10 and 11 here because the first day was predominately travel.


Sad the weekend was over but excited to continue our experience in SE Asia, we departed Penang at 7:30 am for the 4.5 hour drive to Kuala Lumpur.  On the way, we stopped at the Royal Malaysian Customs Department at the Penang airport for a briefing with MIDA (Malaysian Investment Development Authority.  The first portion of the meeting was very formal, we took tea and sat for a series of briefings on the Royal Malaysian Customs Department, the Malaysian Airports, and Cargo MAS.  The speakers were very welcoming and polite, and at one point asked if they could consider us friends!  The main activities of MIDA at the airport include exports, imports, and transshipments and they operate in a Free Commercial Zone (FCZ) that is not controlled by customs.  We then took a walkabout tour of the warehouse and operations facility.  After hearing from different industries and companies, it was very valuable to see from the ground up how international trade works at the cargo level.


Continuing on the drive, we arrived in KL at around 6:00 pm to check into the hotel.  Our guide driving in gave us some basic information about city and landmarks.  A long travel day left us exhausted but excited to spend some more time in Kuala Lumpur!


We woke up the next morning and departed the hotel on a public transportation mission to get to the Kuala Lumpur office of MIDA.  MIDA is the principal government agency responsible for the promotion and coordination of industrial development in Malaysia.  The organization operates under MITI, and works closely with the government finance organizations.  Four major functions include promotion (FDI, DI), evaluation (tax incentives, expatriate posts), planning (recommend policies and strategies), and mentoring (following up and assisting companies in implementation).  There are 22 overseas offices of MIDA including 6 in the United States.


It was interesting, especially after hearing Singaporean strategy for future growth at the EDB, to talk with the MIDA officials on Malaysia's strategy for the future to compete with Singapore.  Malaysia is a much better location for resource based industries, as Singapore has hardly any natural resources; the country has relative political/economic stability with a very pro-business government creating liberal investment policies.  The environment is a lot less competitive than in Singapore, and generally a much greater work-life balance.  Malaysia is currently involved in an Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) targeting creating 3.3 million more jobs and investing heavily in internal industries.


From MIDA, we walked across the street to TQPR Public Relations (http://tqpr.com/my/) for a meeting on public relations and crisis management in SE Asia.  The company was founded in 1995 by Angela Tom, and currently runs a team of 7 general specialists that teaches clients how to handle media and take control of situations.


Malaysia media outlets are owned either directly by the government or by parties of the ruling coalition government; people have to go online to get different viewpoints and those websites/publications are often censored.  The web-based media has the potential to reach a large number of people, as there is a 61% online penetration rate in Malaysia, but the authors/publicists are not free from government action. 


Unique aspects of Malaysia PR are that it is difficult to manage client expectations, especially international clients that are used to being able to buy coverage in publications and advertisements.  Stories have to have a Malaysian/local hook, and have to be pertinent to the local population; this is much different from PR in Singapore where they appreciate the international outlook.  Also, publications often have to be translated into English, Malay, Chinese, and Tamil.


The PR firm gave us a few case studies that highlighted the challenges of PR in Malaysia, but at the end of the meeting we spoke about the PR regarding MH370.  This was particularly timely as the morning of this meeting was the morning of the press conference announcing that the plan was presumed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean, and that all lives were presumed to be lost.  It was interesting to hear a local PR firm's opinion of the situation, because watching international news there is so much criticism about how Malaysia and the airlines handled this situation.  One good point that was brought up is that Malaysia is not used to operating in the international media at this level, and the fumbling of the situation is indicative of how the country has been run. The government is not used to being asked difficult questions by the press, because the government owns the local press.  It will be interesting in the days and weeks to come as the situation continues to progress to see how the government and airlines continue to evolve in their media presence.


We had a quick lunch with three of the employees of TQPR, which was a good opportunity to continue the conversation and learn more about them and how they got started in this industry in Malaysia.  The group then took a few taxis over to Gloria Jean's Coffee (http://www.gloriajeanscoffees.my/) to discuss their business and franchising in Malaysia.  GJC started in the United States but was picked up and franchised heavily throughout Australia, then moving to SE Asia.  The Malaysian government is very liberal towards franchising and creates a good environment for Gloria Jean's.  They do have very strong competition (Starbucks, Old Town, etc.) and try to build relationships one customer at a time to have repeat local customers.




(To be finished later, time to leave for Thailand!!!)