14/09/2025

ON SUNDAY September 14, 2025 II theSunday Special

Made in Malaysia From technology to tradition, our ingenuity has quietly shaped the world in surprising ways BY AQILAH NAJWA JAMALUDDIN W HEN people think of Ma laysia, they often imagine steaming bowls of laksa, bustling night markets and sun-drenched is lands. Yet beyond the food and scenery lies a streak of ingenuity that has shaped industries far beyond its shores. transported data, inspiring decades of innovations in portable storage. Today, whether it hangs on a keychain or slips LQWR D KDQGEDJ WKH KXPEOH ÀDVK GULYH remains a quiet symbol of Malaysian ingenuity.

2. A safer world through rubber Long before the pandemic made medi cal gloves part of daily life, Malaysia had already established itself as a global leader in rubber and glove production. Local companies, such as Top Glove, the world’s largest glove manufacturer with DSSUR[LPDWHO\ D TXDUWHU RI WKH JOREDO PDUNHW VKDUH DQG +DUWDOHJD KDYH UH¿QHG KLJK Ḣ FLHQF\ JORYH GLSSLQJ SURFHVVHV that enable the production of billions of durable, high-quality gloves annually. T KLV H[SHUWLVH SURYHG FULWLFDO LQ when worldwide demand surged during the Covid-19 crisis. At the peak, Malay sian factories were supplying hospitals, clinics and laboratories on nearly every continent, underscoring how home-grown engineering can have a profound global impact on public safety.

Some of the world’s most recognised products and systems trace their origins back to Malaysian talent, proof that inno YDWLRQ FDQ ÀRXULVK LQ XQH[SHFWHG SODFHV 1. The pocket-sized revolution In 2001, Malaysian-born engineer Pua Khein Seng, often hailed as the “father of the pendrive” and his team at Phison Electronics developed a single-chip USB flash drive design. By integrating the controller and memory into a single chip, the device became smaller, cheaper and easier to mass-produce. What seems ordinary now was revo lutionary at the time. This breakthrough revolutionised the way people stored and