An Indian IT expert once related on TV that when the MSC was first mooted, premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad briefed the advisory panel that the way to go about it was to perhaps list about 20 of the future technology areas in IT — i.e. those which will have commercial applications in five to 10, 15 years time — select five areas and then work on them.

This way, the PM said, we will be leapfrogging in the race in those areas. Otherwise, we will be playing catchup forever.

The Indian expert found Mahathir's idea "a very interesting concept" and this was a view widely shared by other IT experts considering venturing into the MSC.

Similarly, I think we should list several new areas in space exploration, select some and work on them. We cannot afford to squander money like the US. We must go for practical and cost-effective ideas and applications.

Going to Mars doesn't sound like a good idea although I find the Red Planet fascinating. The US is already working on this area and also exploring the moons around Jupiter. Following in their footsteps, China is going to the moon and India as well. India is already one of the two superpowers in IT, the other being the US. India is also only second to the US in the world in medicine.

One area that we can focus on in space takes off from the International Space Station i.e. the idea of building living stations and factories, hospitals and R&D stations in outer space. We don't have to get into the International Space Station concept itself but instead study the space station and work on its related application areas.

For starters, we can perhaps build chalets in outer space which will cater to tourists. This will help us finance our activities in outer space. With the revenue generated by space tourism, we can go into pharmaceuticals/food production, etc. in outer space and perhaps even a third FT as an extension of Putrajaya and the university town concept.

Going to space will be a tremendous boost to our economy in the sense that we will acquire new technologies and expertise which will have wide applications in so many areas. This will be a giant leap forward.

We should avoid duplicating the structures built up in many countries which have already embarked on space exploration. Instead, we should sub-contract our space work to them while acquiring the technology involved. Countries already engaged in the space race include India, China and Japan in Asia, the Europeans, Russians and the US.

If we want to launch anything into space, both the Russians and Europeans can do it for us quite cheaply. We can also tap into India's pool of scientific and technological manpower. India has the world's third largest pool of scientific and technological manpower i.e. after the US and Russia. The rest of the world is way, way behind these three countries in these fields. In fact, India is already exporting its excess manpower in science and technology to the US. They are doing a tremendous job of training the Americans.