The Sakal Media Group in India, visited Malaysia to forge a new partnership on the future of governance.  The Malaysian Prime Minister established Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU)in his office soon after assuming charge in 2009. The unit has succeeded in redefining governance and shaping it to respond to future challenges. The Sakal Media Group aims to transfer knowledge from Malaysia to improve governance in Maharashtra, a state with 110 million population.

Strategic Foresight Group was invited to join dialogue between the Sakal Media Group and the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Office as an institution specialised in the future of governance. SFG primarily conducted discussion with Cabinet Ministers in Malaysian Prime Minister’s Office responsible for good governance on behalf of the Sakal Media Group. Important among them were Dato' Sri Idris Jala, Minister in charge of PEMANDU and Dato’ Paul Low, Minister responsible for eliminating corruption. SFG also met with senior representatives of the ministries of energy and public transport.

Malaysia’s governance and economic transformation programme has clear objectives. The transport ministry aims to enhance the proportion of public transport users to 30% by 2020, up from 16% in 2009 and 20% in 2013. The energy ministry is in the process of designing the future energy policy around efficiency and creation of capacity. The urban development ministry aims to clean all rivers in Kuala Lumpur by 2020 and convert them into Rivers of Life.

Malaysia was one of the first countries in the world to apply a futuristic approach to governance when the then Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohammed, announced Vision 2020 in 1995. As many of the targets were achieved by 2005, Strategic Foresight Group was invited by Malaysian Institute of Management and Urban Forum to redefine vision.  Prime Minister Najib who was then Deputy Prime Minister and former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir, besides heads of major public and private sector organisations participated in the SFG process.  When Dato Sri Najib was elected Prime Minister in 2009, he took the next step by launching PEMANDU.

The PEMANDU process focuses on people’s participation in designing, planning and implementation of public infrastructure. Sakal plans to transfer knowledge to India since it has significant capacity to mobilise people’s participation through its television, print media and Internet vehicles.