substance over form...

...in accounting 'substance over form' is the concept that the information shown in the financial statements and accompanying disclosures of a business should reflect the underlying realities of accounting transactions, rather than the legal form in which they appear...it is indeed an interesting concept...remember my informal discussions with several businessmen and academicians couple of months ago...it was about Malaysia and South Korea ...both were successful in attracting foreign investments many decades ago...but unlike the Koreans...with few exceptions of course...other than the improved infrastructure (form) we are slow in acquiring the skills (substance) brought by those foreign companies...take Proton for example...we have yet to produce good quality 'local' cars that we all can be proud of...most MSC companies are still relying on geniuses from India and China...Malaysia is also a hub for electronic/electrical appliances with many foreign companies invested here but we are yet to see local companies as global players like Sony or Samsung...Vietnam is catching up very fast...we are probably losing out to Indonesia too...so what's wrong?...is it becos of our policy? i doubt it becos we often produce the best 'blue prints' in the world...the government has also introduced many incentives...then how about implementation?...may be we don't work hard or smart enough like the Koreans or Japanese...or may be we are just slow learners?...Prof Lord Eatwell said Malaysians are sometimes too kind and polite...so a little (or maybe a lot like the Singaporeans) toughness is probably needed...to be honest i believe our professors also do not contribute much to the development of the Nation...we have yet to hear earth-shaking ideas from our professors...me included hmmm...remember when our PM talked about nobel laureatte...i believe one day Malaysia will have one...no doubt about it...but to achieve that we need to focus more on the substance than the form...so probably instead of talking global, we should focus on our local contributions that would eventually attract global attention...glokal versus lobal? ha3...cheers and have a great weekend...