I refer to the gloomy letter The tiger, the dragon and Malaysia's future .

Let me start with a quote by the Dalai Lama: 'If you have a problem and there is a solution, why worry? If you have a problem and there is no solution, why worry?"

There are plenty of opportunities for Malaysia whatever happens in China or India. Why? Because in all likelihood there will be plenty of problems in China and India - including problems caused by growth - and Malaysians can begin positioning ourselves to be ready to solve them.

A discussion of some fundamentals of 'Low Hanging Fruits' and 'Monetising Problems' are in order so this discussion about Malaysia's future is grounded in common sense.

What is the criteria for 'Low-Hanging Fruits'?

Given that the harder a problem, the greater the reward, the lesser the competition, the more uncertain resourcing for it is. And that the easier a problem, the lesser the reward, the greater the competition and the more certain resourcing is.

Low-hanging fruits would lie in the sweet spot between 'too hard a problem' and 'too easy a problem'. Not too hard that the resourcing is so uncertain. Not too easy that the rewards make it not worthwhile.

And how do you monetise problems? First of all, we must realise that default problems are opportunities. And default opportunities are monetisable.

And be prepared to imagine that some of the most surprising problems are monetisable. For example, how do you monetise the problem of unhappiness? Answer: Bottle happiness that is basically what Coca-Cola has done. It has bottled glee.

How do you monetise value? Attach a currency value to it.

How do you monetise views? Create exchanges. That's what stock exchanges and foreign exchange dealers do. You sell your view on where a stock or currency's price is headed.

Can we monetise our views on which script-director-actor combination will do well and which we think won't? You bet - create an exchange for the buying and selling of these views.

What prevents money from being made here? Absence of imagination and habitual perception that the solution will be executed weakly. How do you overcome this?

Have it executed by domain experts with track record - you've done enough by coming to this stage (i.e. perceiving the problem, having the inner strength to be prepared to imagine there is a solution to it, thinking of the solution, assessing its 'sweet spot-ness' and articulating the solution enough to organise resourcing (human + financial) for it - all of which are mostly taken for granted by many around you).

Given Malaysia's human resource strengths and given that human resources drives all other resources, let's start going for this virtually infinite supply of low hanging fruits. The fruit supply is limited only by our imagination and our courage.