28 Industry4wrd : National Policy on Industry 4.0 CASE FOR ACTION MALAYSIA’S READINESS for Industry 4.0 A key question is how ready Malaysia is for Industry 4.0. The recent report on the Readiness for the Future of Production Report 2018, jointly published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and A.T. Kearney, provides a global assessment of 100 countries and positions Malaysia in the “Leader” quadrant. These are countries with a “strong current production base” and who are “positioned well for the future”. It is also interesting to note that Malaysia and China are the only two non-high income countries in the “Leader” quadrant. This is both an enviable and a challenging position for Malaysia. On the one hand, it underscores Malaysia’s strong current manufacturing position and its readiness for Industry 4.0. On the other hand, it also highlights the economic value at stake if Malaysia is not able to transform itself in an accelerated manner. The gap to global leaders like Japan, Republic of Korea, Germany, Switzerland and China is still significant and other countries in the region have aggressive plans and are moving fast in their implementation. Drivers of production score (0-10) 10 High-Potential Leading 8 France Poland 6 United States Singapore Germany Japan Malaysia China Korea Italy 4 2 0 Nascent Legacy 0 2 4 6 8 10 Structure of Production score (0-10) East Asia and the Pacific Euroasia Europe Latin America and the Carribean Middle East and Nort Africa North America South Asia Sub-Saharan Africa Note: Average performance of the top 75 countries is at the intersection of the four quadrants. Source: Readiness for the Future of Production Report, World Economic Forum, 2018