RISM’s Technical Trip and the Revelation

The trip to the UK, Croatia and Bosnia at the end of October 2011 was in a way an eye-opener, particularly the technical visit to the headquarters of RICS and the session with RISM (UK Chapter) members.

We had in the session with RISM (UK Chapter) met up with the office bearers, members and potential members (about 30 of them altogether). At the same time interviews were carried out (by Dr Wan Maimun Wan Abdullah) of applicants who wish to become members through the special route.  This is the case where the graduates – in particular, the quantity surveying graduates – didn’t have the required number of years of experience to become members of RISM.

In conjunction with the meet-up session to provide for both the delegation and the RISM (UK Chapter) the opportunity of getting to know each other better apart from giving an ear to their problems, we also hosted them to a dinner.  During this gathering, I had briefed them on current developments of RISM as well as attempted to motivate them through my address as the President, so too with Dr Wan Maimun Wan Abdullah who had subsequently delivered a special dinner talk.  Personally, I am very much impressed with their deep interest which is apparent during the discussions, as well as the activities that they had carried out under the banner of RISM.

One rather conspicuous issue raised by them is the significant number of institutions of higher learning that were not included as recognized universities by RISM.  This leads to the possibility that the list of recognized universities was not being updated by RISM.  If it’s true, it is imperative then this has to be done soonest possible to ensure that qualified and competent surveyors are not denied their chance of becoming RISM members.  At the same time, certain requirements that have to be met, especially in the case of the quantity surveyors, have to be reviewed, considering that they are more of meeting the needs of the Board of Quantity Surveyors (BQSM).  Although fulfilling those needs would facilitate the registration of QS members with BQSM, it should however be viewed as a separate matter in the light of RISM’s endeavour to have its membership considerably increased.

The visit to RICS Headquarters was a revelation as well.  We were treated to a briefing on the operation of the renowned organization by Sr Ong See Lian - the President himself - apart from 3 presentations touching on aspects of quantity surveying, valuation and construction.  Evidently, to have looked up at RICS as a model professional survey organization is the right thing to do; the hard fact is that we are decades behind them. With more than 160,000 members in over 140 countries, it’s clearly an amazing achievement. The lesson that could probably be learnt is that we need to improve our quality of professionalism and market that throughout the world. This could lead to an increase in our membership and along these lines internationalization efforts become imperative.

It’s true that RICS started very much earlier than RISM, as some would say, but we cannot carry on sitting tight with this consolation and should endeavour to leap frog if we are to reach their level of achievement.  We certainly need to also find niche areas in our development – not necessarily following the business model of RICS.  And this would certainly make the need for a first-rate strategic plan more exigent. 

Digital Economy

Our Prime Minister said on 19 October 2011 that it was undeniable the next wave of economic growth would come from knowledge-based economy with digital technologies as a key driver of progress.  This was delivered at the launch of the 23^rd MSC Malaysia Implementation Council Meeting.  Nonetheless, he mentioned that Malaysia needs a solid push and a clear framework to build a digital economy, which will be an important enabler for the country’s economic transformation program. He had made similar announcement earlier this year at the Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council Meeting in New York, whereby he mentioned that Malaysia is constructing an innovative digital economy framework that would serve as an additional enabler for its transformation.

The fact that he emphasized on Digital Malaysia to be seen as a pillar of the Transformation Program and the positioning of Digital Malaysia in the National Transformation Policy should be something that should cause surveyors to stand-up and take note -  in particular the land surveyors and valuers. The part which involves the land surveyors is obviously the aspect of collecting and managing geospatial information.  In this regards, it has now become common knowledge that as much as 80% or more of data collected has a spatial reference and that almost 80% of decision making in government needs spatial information.

How can this then be related to it being a contributor to the economy? From researches made, it can be summarized that there has been an increasing emphasis on geospatial data whereby organizations worldwide maximize and exploit geospatial information and technology across their enterprises. This include increased geospatial development and capabilities from large Internet providers like Google, MSN and Yahoo.  In addition, there has been sharply increased use of technologies such as GNSS, RFID, wireless LAN/WAN, intelligent sensors and cellular networks. Increasing systems and data integration focused on spatially-enabled enterprise information systems too comes into play in this area of digital technology.

The economic value of geospatial information in particular has been researched by some authorities. For exemplification, it’s noteworthy to consider referring to the one carried out in the United Kingdom, whereby the value of digital geospatial information in local public service delivery in England and Wales had been scoped for the study. This is in consideration of the fact that digital geospatial information is deemed an enabler of improvements in the local public service delivery, including in designing and managing services and infrastructure, monitoring local conditions and change, evidence-based decision making, and locating customer needs. Obviously, there are many other innovative use of digital geospatial information across other services as well.

The outcome of the aforementioned research shows that the creation and use of digital geospatial information had contributed £353 million (RM 1.6 billion) to the GDP for England and Wales in 2009 and that it would double up in 2015. We have to bear in mind that this study is scoped into applications confined to the local authorities. There are obviously many more other applications in other areas, which certainly is bountiful.

From another perspective, it was reported that Europe’s digital economy has grown in strength. In fact, it had spread throughout all sectors of the economy - reaching into all areas of their lives. It was said that ICTs have driven half of the productivity growth in Europe over the past 15 years, and that 6 out of 10 Europeans regularly use the Internet. And it was pointed out that if Europe wants to fully exploit the potential benefits of the digital economy, it must step up and provide faster broadband, improve citizen’s skills and encourage even more ICT innovation. Additionally, it is clear that the Internet has huge potential in the on-line market through e-Commerce / e-Business.

Malaysia would evidently be following suit in the aforementioned exciting developments. So, let’s go with the flow and pounce on the opportunities available, apart from contributing to Malaysia’s digital economy.