NUS professor discusses innovation strategy for middle-income countries

The Institute of Management and Leadership Development (IMLD), and the Belt and Road Strategic Research Centre (BRSRC) from UTAR jointly organised a talk titled “Catching up or breaking out? Innovation strategy for middle-income countries” on 5 September 2023 at Sungai Long Campus. Invited to give the talk was Emeritus Prof Dr Wong Poh Kam from the National University of Singapore (NUS). The talk was moderated by IMLD Director and BRSRC Chairperson Prof Dr Cheng Ming Yu.

At the talk, Emeritus Prof Wong illustrated the usefulness of the broader latecomer innovation strategic framework using examples from China and East Asia, and discussed how public policies or institutions and private entrepreneurial behaviour in middle-income countries like Malaysia can shape the selection of innovation pathways and accelerate or retard their economic development.

The talk kickstarted with a brief introduction about Emeritus Prof Wong by Prof Cheng, who later invited him to deliver the talk. At the beginning of the talk, Emeritus Prof Wong discussed the development challenges of middle-income countries. He mentioned that middle-income countries should invest more in technologies to catch up and escape the middle-income status.

Prof Cheng introducing Emeritus Prof Wong

Moving on, Emeritus Prof Wong also talked about the latecomers’ catching-up challenge as well as their advantages and disadvantages. Some of the disadvantages included brand and property entry barriers and the lack of confidence since latecomers often face lots of competition. On the other hand, their advantages are gaining knowledge spillover from the early movers, evading new technological waves that disrupt or destroy incumbent technological advantage, and obtaining a new level of playing field.

Emeritus Prof Wong during the talk

Emeritus Prof Wong also talked about technological capability, which included the types of technological capability, product versus process technological capability, and level versus vector of capability. then shared some examples of latecomers achieving success. According to him, one of the ways to achieve success is to have an industrial policy to protect domestic firms until they are strong enough to compete globally. Also, having some competitors domestically (to compete with the firms) is necessary to prevent a monopoly from happening. He also mentioned that a higher level of investment will be needed to catch up with the rest. Among other topics addressed by Emeritus Prof Wong were creative use and creative imitation, which require latecomers to undergo a customised adaptation to suit the market needs. Emeritus Prof Wong concluded his talk with a quote, saying, “It is important to have a break-out mindset.”

The talk ended with a Q&A session and a group photography session.

Front row, second from right: Emeritus Prof Wong with participants