We believe that by looking ahead further than the conventional norms would enable us to assist the Government to strike the right balance between long-term thinking & tackling issues that need immediate attention
by | Rushdi Abdul Rahim | rushdi@might.org.my
Greetings & Salutations, It is my pleasure to bring you the latest edition of myForesight® magazine, the first one for 2013. We hope your 2012 has been a good one and in hindsight would enable you to undertake foresight with gusto.
I am glad to say though myForesight® – Malaysian Foresight Institute; have been operational as an institute for quite some time under the purview of MIGHT, we have just finalized the appointment of the our Governing Board and we are honoured to have the Science Advisor to Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Prof. Emeritus Dato’ Sri Dr. Zakri Abdul Hamid as our Chairman.
We believe that members of the Governing Board (please see the next page) will bring their extensive experience and insights into myForesight®’s work where we hope to initiate future oriented subject or topic for discussions and attention.
It is the intent of myForesight® to undertake projects that will draw upon a range of disciplines and deal with key issues where science and technology offers valuable insights & solutions. We believe that by looking ahead further than the conventional norms would enable us to assist the Government and the relevant stakeholders to strike the right balance between long-term thinking & tackling issues that needs immediate attention. Our goal is that any Foresight project must:
• Looking at least 10 years ahead;
• Future-oriented and based upon science & technology;
• Trans-disciplinary, and policy issues that cut across ministries/departmental boundaries;
• Can produce results that can influence Government policy;
• Will not duplicate work taking place elsewhere;
• Has support in and commitment from key stakeholders.
myForesight® will be undertaking this in three way:
• Foresight Projects: Looking at major issues 10-20 years into the future, which provide futures and evidence analysis to fill a specific gap in existing policy understanding;
• Horizon & Trend Scanning: Framework in continuous monitoring of trends to pick up weak signals and emerging issues;
• Capacity Building: Training, toolkits and networks to strengthen futures thinking capacity and share best practice within and across government;
On the subject of capacity building, one of the element to address in looking at the future will be the most important of all, us; people, the human being. That is why a lot of effort is being put forth to look into this matter, ensuring the future generations are given the right skills and knowledge.
Therefore, for this particular edition, we are dedicating almost the whole magazine to the subject of capacity building and human capital development.
For the past year, we have been fortunate enough to meet up with prominent personalities who speaks passionately about capacity building and education.
One of the highlights would have been an enlightening conversation we had with Dr. Sonia Ortega of US, National Science Foundation who have abundance of experience in tackling the issues of education especially in the subject of S.T.E.M (Science, Technical, Engineering & Mathematics). You can read about her thoughts on the subject matter in page 4.
We are also presenting the viewpoints and arguments about future mismatch of skills and knowledge and the type of jobs that will be available for the next 10 years. One of the interesting things we found is that currently in the top 20 companies in Malaysia less than 40% of the top management are of the technical background. This begets the question “what career prospect are there for science students?” since we are pushing for more enrolment in the science stream.
As usual, we hope you find the magazine beneficial and thought provoking.
We expect you to have your opinion on certain matters. We want to hear them. We welcome your feedback and contributions.
