Malaysia is a country which has strong and wide spectrum of economic activities to boost its earnings and to provide adequate job opportunities for its citizens and the immigrants. One such economic activity is the manufacturing sector.

The manufacturing sector has been giving employment to a significant number of labourers. Normally, the manufacturing industry uses local raw materials for its products. Only if such materials are exhausted locally will they opt to import for such materials from other countries at competitive prices.

To decide whether to produce locally or to buy the product from other countries, we should use the opportunity cost mechanism. It simply means, find out first how much we lose if we choose option A instead of B and we compute the vice-versa. Once done, we choose the option that results in lesser costs.

The manufacturing industry is one of the most important productive and value added industries. But what is happening now? Quite a number of products manufactured in Malaysia previously are instead now being bought from neighboring countries. The Malaysian companies merely label and pack these products to be marketed locally.

The above modus operandi  is very extensive in the personal care and hygiene market and for food items. The irony is that a significant number of these items, though manufactured elsewhere, carry the ‘Buatan Malaysia’ logo. This is sort of deceiving and should be stopped.

We should not take the transfer of manufacturing processes away from Malaysian soil lightly. We not only lose employment opportunities for Malaysians but also the market for our local raw materials. It also affects the products and services, directly and indirectly, related to those goods no longer  produced in Malaysia.

The manufacturing industry must be preserved and encouraged since it also gives added value to our economy. If our trading, service and  financial sectors are robust then we can do away with the manufacturing industry. However, all these sectors are volatile and a downfall in them could result in severe financial crises (just like the recent crisis experienced by the US).

We are all aware as to how our government stringently protects certain sensitive or essential industries (for example the tobacco, rice and fish sectors) since they generate a high revenue.  A similar treatment should also be applied for the personal care and hygiene sector and for certain food items.

Lastly, as a matter of fact, my brother’s family went to England a few months back. Before they returned, my brother bought a few souvenirs to be brought back. He gave a few of these souvenirs to my wife. They were plate-like items with pictures of the ‘Big Ben’, London Bridge and one palace.

While I gazed at them I, out of curiosity, turned them around just to see what was on the back. To my hilarity, I saw the words ‘Made in China’ on all three of them. What an irony!