In what has become a yearly practice, MSC Malaysia carried out a market study on the 2009 business performance of all MSC Malaysia companies. Based on clusters, this survey – the MSC Malaysia Annual Industry Report 2009 – has five different readings:

- revenues
- jobs
- research and development (R&D) expenditures
- export, and
- registered intellectual property (IP).

Of the five, the most important is naturally, the revenue. In 2009, the total revenue that MSC Malaysia companies have generated hovered around RM24.83 billion, with exports bringing in the additional RM7.17 billion and the R&D expenditure reaching RM1.51 billion. These numbers contributed to Malaysia’s overall socio-economic performance while creating the staggering 99,590 jobs and registering 1,752 new IPs in the year.

Cluster Ranks
Companies under each cluster showed a strong presence across all five readings.

Leading the way is the Information Technology (InfoTech) cluster, which topped the charts in three areas: revenue, export, and R&D expenditure. Trailing closely behind, is Shared Services and Outsourcing (SSO) cluster, leading in jobs and export. The other two clusters, Creative Multimedia Cluster (CMC) and IHL and Incubators (renamed E-Biz), are ranked below the two leading clusters but are competing neck and neck in all five areas.

The lead that the InfoTech cluster has in IPs, with 722 registered in 2009 alone, is natural as these companies spent the most on R&D, some RM1.04 billion. It is through the production of new innovations, be it products or services, that InfoTech was also able to generate higher sales and profits, which translated to its RM21.58 billion in revenue for 2009.

Such inter-relations are also found in the performance of the SSO cluster. Having to deal with international counterparts, markets and channel partners, companies in this cluster primarily deal with export of goods. SSO single-handedly generated RM3.93 billion in exports. The same thought process can be applied for client servicing. The need for a large workforce that can deal with multiple-region customer service and inter-related tasks is the very reason why SSO has the highest output for job creation – 39,032 jobs in 2009.
As for CMC and E-Biz, many of their companies are still in the growth stage. Even so, they have contributed marginally to the total scoring for all categories. Even if these companies’ revenues are on the low-side right now, MDeC expects to see major growth in these two clusters as they are aligned with the government’s plan to transform the nation into a knowledge economy that is powered through innovation.

Currently, both these clusters are catching up to the leading two in different areas. CMC has contributed significantly in the yearly revenue for 2009, around RM4 billion, due to the sale of locally produced content to overseas markets and having registered 390 new IPs on a very low tune of RM120 million spent on R&D. E-Biz is also doing very well on the IP front as it trails second to InfoTech, registering 494 new IPs last year. Job creation is another area E-Biz is gaining on as it generated 26,844 new openings in the workforce in 2009.

Just recently, CMC has closed major deals for local content consumption overseas and has even locked in new production contracts with foreign partners, while E-Biz is seeing new strides in development as it focuses on 2.0 technologies like the Cloud and integrated communication systems.

Seeing how well each cluster is performing across the five key areas, MDeC is certain they will be performing even better in 2010 and beyond. The situation seems right as the world economy is recovering from the credit collapse of 2008/09 and Malaysia is poised to pick up where it left off in 2006/07. Even with the current Eurozone crisis, MDeC is confident more will be done to improve the overall performance of the country.

Certainly it is an exciting time for all!