Shanghai and Malaysia

(I started typing this post 1 month ago, but then the World Cup got in the way!)

Spent a great few days in Shanghai.

Last year, Shanghai traffic was horrendous because of all the Expo-related construction.  Getting from Pudong to Puxi was a nightmare and you would experience very long delays getting into the tunnels to cross the Huangpu.  But this time getting around was a breeze.  Apart from intermittent road cordons to allow foreign dignataries to speed by, Shanghai’s transport system was so efficient.

The new Hong Qiao airport is further out of town than the previous one, but is really easy to get around.  There is an express lane for people not having to pick up baggage from the carousel and there were plenty of taxis waiting.  The only confusing part is that the new Hong Qiao airport is called “Hong Qiao terminal 2″, while the older one is “Hong Qiao terminal 1″.  This would be fine, but for the fact that they are some distance apart.  I imagine some people might get mixed up and go to the wrong airport and possibly miss their flight.  Probably would’ve been better to give the new airport a different name.

Shanghai really impressed me.  The restaurants are great and better than Beijing.  The footpaths are properly built.  There is much more appreciation for the preservation of historical buildings.  Having said that, don’t be entirely seduced by this great city – beneath the stunning veneer of the Bund and the modern Lujiazui metropolis, service staff are still quite a few levels below Hong Kong and the “software” still needs some serious polishing.

Some quick comments on the Shanghai World Expo:

• Queues – Getting inside the Expo was quite easy. But once inside queues are very very long for the most popular pavilions.  Apparently the Oz pavilion gets 20% of Expo traffic.
• Worth going?  I wouldn’t make a special trip to Shanghai for it. Particularly if you’ve traveled quite a bit around the world because the pavilions are speed-dating stalls for each country.  It’s really quite boring if you’ve already been to that country.
• Weirdest pavilion - Very easy, that would go to North Korea.  Inside they have a plaque proclaiming “Paradise for People”.  They also have a few TV’s showing what look to be 1980′s video footage of North Korean factories.

Indonesia was the best pavilion I went to – It was bloody impressive and they must have hired a really professional PR agency.  The pavilion was well-0rganised and you didn’t have to queue too long.  The displays were interesting and covered economics, culture, geography, nature and politics.  They reflected a country with increasing confidence in its place in the world.

Malaysia was the worst – Hate to say it, but it was terribly disappointing (what follows is a scathing rant).From the outside it looks nice, but inside it’s crap (perhaps an apt analogy of the current state of Malaysia?)

Malaysia is still stuck with its racial identity issues and this shows from its pavilion.  When you walk in you are straight away confronted by mannequins of each race – Malay, Chinese and Indian.  This contrasts with Indonesia, which was much more self-confident and didn’t see the need to explicitly convey its ethnic diversity – they simply had photos of different people standing next to each other smiling.

Malaysia’s crowd control was also terrible.  You had to queue 20mins, not because it was a very popular pavilion, but because of the internal design of the pavilion which didn’t allow the free movement of people inside.  Conversely, Indonesia designed a pavilion which allowed a constant and smooth flow of traffic.

But perhaps most importantly, Indonesia gets China while Malaysia doesn’t.  Malaysia is still obsessed about being “Asian” and this is reflected by its tourism marketing - “Malaysia, Truly Asia”.  When I meet with Malaysian companies, they always reminisce about the glory days in the late 90′s, prior to the Asian Financial Crisis when the Malaysian stock market was one of the largest markets in Asia.  But the reality is that China is today’s story (and the rest of the 21st century’s story), and China doesn’t give a f*ck about whether someone is “Asian” or whether certain countries qualify to be “Asian”.  China only cares about itself and the US.

Malaysia really needs to grasp the implications of the China story or it will be left behind.  Investors much prefer Indonesia, which is a massive commodity and domestic demand story.  This despite Malaysia appearing to be more investor-friendly – more English speakers, former British institutions and less terrorism risk vs Indonesia.

But one of the biggest factors that scares off investors is the NEP.  It’s hard to invest in a country which is experiencing a constant brain drain of talent to the West and Singapore.  Until the NEP is resolved, I’m afraid that Malaysia will likely continue to languish as a backwater, not only in Asia (where China, India and Indonesia are the story), but even in its South-East Asian backyard.  I would hate to see Malaysia perceived as being on the same level as the Philippines.

I know I’ve been kicking Malaysia a lot in this post, but I genuinely want to see progress.  It’s unfortunate then, that at an international expo in China which will receive millions of visitors, the Malaysian pavilion has spelling mistakes in English.  This is unacceptable and inexcusable for a country where the English language should be a strength.

Malaysia pavilion