We all know the negative impact, so let’s look at the positive impact, and of course the great opportunities that lies a head  in this time of certain uncertainties ….

Putting a side the arguement of whether we have a government of integrity or not, let’s look at the matter constructively. In my opinion, Malaysia should have reduced the subsidy a long time ago, because the high fuel cost will enable many important factors to happen, such as:

1) cost of goods sold will reflect the actual cost, not at subsidised cost, this will spurr producers to be more efficient in the usage of fuel and transportation,

2) housing and commercial buildings development, town planning will seriously take into account the transportation and energy cost factor.

3) indivuduals will be more concious of fuel price and will choose more economical cars, or ways to reduce such costs.

4) more local companies will produce energy efficient goods, logistics and distribution will be improved

The list can go on, and this will help Malaysians to get ‘real’. The cost of fuel is so high out there and yet other countries can still be competitive, Malaysian companies will have to face the challenge without the fuel subsidy. We can’t have an economy that is on painkiller for too long can we? Suggestions for the people and the government ? Well I have a few..

1) zero import duties on any vehicles that does not require fossil fuel and nominal tax on hybrid cars for a start

2) tax holidays and interest free loan to companies investing in the production of green renewable energy, such as solar, wind, tidal, even fusion energy.

3) encourage intelligent townships without cars; one idea is to provide public transport in the form of energy efficient one/two person buggies. The buggies can be powered by NGV, electric or petrol.

4) intelligent township such as mix development projects with large residential-retail-office-SOHO-recreation concept will help save a lot of moving around

4) improve broadband service to enable virtual conferencing, shopping, so that people can reduce the need to travel.

The very first step in order to start the above, is probably what we are not used to; i.e. to get real, remove the subsidy and let the market forces to guide us to a better future. And what the governement should do? My two cents worth is, stop being in the way and stop putting toll gates….. if you get what I mean…cheers!

Too much have been written about the bad effect on us, so much so I decided to think. In these sort of circumstances, the doomsayers will add onto other doomsayers and create a downward spiral, and in the end, people may just very well say the end of the world is tomorrow. 

Time and time again, people have forgotten the key to human success as a race is our very own ingenuity and will to survive. I believe if oil prices were to maintain at current level of USD140/barrel or more, the positive impact will be, alternative and greener fuel will be commercially viable much sooner. Remember Thomas Malthus, in 1796 this English bloke wrote a book talking about the world will eventually run out of land to produce food for the growing population. People need to eat and also to have sex resulting in more babies and more mouth to feed. People grow in geometric progession and food grow in arthimatical progression (remember our add-math? ). Anyway he has been proven wrong, the world population probably have grown 10 times more but the land for food cultivation has grown much lesser. It is understandable that he made such an assumption because he was born 100 years before the industrial revolution. The productivity per hectare of land has grown so much since then, with better farming equipment, irrigation, breed, pest control etc.

The high oil prices have motivated businesses and government to build and experiment on solar, wind, tidal or even fusion energy. Most of these projects requires huge investments because they are new and not in mass production yet. It is now commercially viable. Coupled with the gloabl fear started by Al Gore’s famous ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ I guess it all will come to a happy ending.

Burning fossil fuel actually has a very high cost if we were to include the price of cleaning up the environment caused by the pollution. We are just deferring such expenses to our future generation. I think it is up to us now to do something about it, and the high oil price could just be a blessing in disguise.

Its about time….

Past 2 days event is what I call Extreme Networking! Exchanged over 400 namecards with people from 26 countries…… each spend on average half to a minute of asking what they do and what contacts they need vice versa. Some interesting ones could be more than 15 minutes.

I have across businesses such as sublime relaxation cds, renewable energy using solid waste, solar panel, health food, software house from India, event management companies, eye specialist, tour agencies, ergonomical products etc….. this is what I call education.

While I am learning what my new friends do, they are also learning what I do. Together we go back with more knowledge and the ability to look out for new opportunities for each other.

Besides promoting my business, I was also there to test out certain new businesses. I am looking at the Barter Exchange business, and surprising I got quite a good respond. I reckon the people who can comprehend how barter can help in their business share one thing in common. They have the ability to think laterally.

Now I need get back to sort all the new contacts…

Here’s some networking tips from Robert French at the opening of BNI KL08..