Ray Van Eng (12/04/96)
Malaysia has more people (21 million vs 3 million in Singapore), more land (for building container ports, factories, setting up tax havens and free-trade zones), and a bigger stock market with almost twice the capitalization ($322 Billion vs $175 Billion for Singapore), although there is a huge difference in GDP per capita at $4,000 vs $28,000 for Singapore (1995 figure) which gives Singapore a big lead in terms of productivitiy and competitiveness. However, the people of the Malays are determined to one-up Singapore in all areas including the high technology sector. Asia Connect (www.asiaconnect.com.my), an Internet service provider in Malaysia, is gearing up to finish the PenangNet, a fiber-to-home network available for all households, businesses, schools and government in the Penang region by the end of 1997. And some time ago, Microsoft has decided to move the regional headquarters from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur.
*From 1963 to 1965, Singapore joined the Malaysia Federation. The two countries split after two short years over racial tensions. Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, the then prime minister of Singapore opposes Malaysia's policy of favoring the ethnic Malays over other races such as the predominately ethnic Chinese population of Singapore. Recently, Lee indicated that a reunification is possible as long as Malaysia drop their stance on racial matters.
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There
is no question that Singapore wants to differentiate itself from other
Asia Pacific nations: Japan, Hong Kong (not a country, but...), Korea,
Australia, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia etc. But Singapore
is facing some very serious competitions, one of the toughest is coming
from its 
Recently,
Asia Connect have announced they will use Microsoft's Internet server systems
as a foundation for their commercial Internet services which will encompass
their efforts in being a technology solution provider for the '98 Commonwealth
Games to be hosted in Malaysia in 1998.