MOVING UP ON SOLAR INDUSTRY VALUE CHAIN: A RESPOND TO WORLD BANK’S PRESCRIPTION FOR MALAYSIA

Abstract

The pressure due to the changes in supplying energy and its price in the international community is in such an extent that it encourages industrialized and developing countries in seeking self-sufficiency in energy production. As one of the leading in countries South East Asia Nations (ASEAN), Malaysia has taken planning and specific investment for the Solar Industry into consideration, besides paying attention to a variety of new and renewable energies. Given the diversity of processes in working on the development of Solar Industry, the World Bank has, through a comprehensive report, provided prescription with regard to the success of Malaysia in this industry. This paper presents an analysis of the study conducted by the World Bank. However, it shows that despite the detailed and comprehensive analysis of the value chain in the solar industry globally, assumptions and methods the World Bank about the solar industry in Malaysia suffers from several shortcomings and errors which can result in the lack of reliability and validity in its concluding remarks. Encouraging Malaysia to moving towards downstream industries for achieving more added value decrease the security of future investments in this industry in Malaysia also will raise the price of the final products and create crisis in the industry in the event of imbalance.