Technology boom in ASEAN

Secretary Deck Go is right. Malaysia and Vietnam are enjoying a technology boom as billions of dollars in FDI poured in the wake of a rush to protect high-tech products from the threatened Trump tariffs starting next year.

- BOO CHANCO

Someone in one of my Viber Groups posted an article from Malaysia's thestar.com and I am green with envy and almost want to cry. Why did our officials fail us so terribly? While our politicians were so engrossed in enriching themselves with their share of pork barrel budgets and unaudited confidential funds, tech hubs were being built in Malaysia and Vietnam.

"An accelerating influx of tech investment is transforming local economies in Malaysia and Vietnam," Malaysia's The Star reports.

"Multinationals, governments and startups rush to develop AI, establish chipmaking hubs and carve out access to raw computing power... seeding the tech nerve centers of the future in Southeast Asia. More than $100 billion in foreign direct investment has coursed through Malaysia and Vietnam from 2020 through 2023, with tens of billions more to come. The growth is resulting in job gains and rising incomes."

See what I mean about wanting to cry! Malaysia and Vietnam were hard at work attracting tech investments while Duterte was concentrating on welcoming the POGO type investments that were also international scam hubs victimizing people worldwide.

The Star reports that the investments started flowing to Malaysia and Singapore during the COVID-19 pandemic and "is changing the way the world's smartphones, computers and data center servers are made.

"Malaysia sees this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of escaping the middle-income trap and soon achieving its aspirations as a high-income nation," Chow Kon Yeow, the chief minister of Malaysia's Penang state, told Bloomberg.