While the World Economic Forum (WEF) has ranked Malaysia as the 24th most competitive nation whilst remaining the second most competitive nation among ASEAN's 148 countries in its Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2013-2014, Malaysia not only can, but certainly needs to, do much better in order to sharpen its competitive edge. Not only is there a pressing need for us to learn to compete in a world market place that is getting increasingly ever-tougher but we must go through a new process of re-learning and re-thinking and apply major paradigm shifts so as to be able to come up with higher productivity, higher product quality and the highest quality human resource. That notwithstanding, there is also a dire need to work harder to move the economy into high-value sectors that will generate jobs for the future. On all fronts across all sectors throughout the country, the pace must be heightened so as not to lose momentum. The acceleration will then boost these high-value sectors to that desired level where peak performance will result in increased productivity at the highest levels. Only then can the nation realistically achieve the targets envisioned by the nation's leaders if we are to attain the status of developed nation by 2020. In order to compete with the best in the world, we need to be at least equal to the best in order to maintain the status quo. And this is the least of the requirements. Imagine then if we were to take that bold quantum leap and dare to take on the challenge of being better than the best. This is the colossal challenge we face today in order to prepare for the future. We can most certainly compete with the best in the world by ensuring we have the best talents. In short, the best people to do the job most effectively and most productively. In order to be productive, we must grow effectively, which directly necessitates the dire need to increase the quality of human resource exponentially. The level of global competitiveness has changed tremendously over the last decade because of the changing patterns of world trade, globalisation of the world economy, rapid dissemination of technology and information, the rise of the transnational organisations and the use of ICT. It is clearly evident that we are not making effective use of ICT despite the fact that Malaysia has 34 Million mobile subscribers and 17.5 Million Internet users (2012) and in 2016, there will be 21 Million. 87.9% of Malaysians on the Internet access Facebook. There are currently 13.3 Million Facebook users in Malaysia (July 2013). (Malaysia Social Media Statistics for 2012) It is a mitigating fact that the glaring lack of use of ICT among Malaysians has become a growing concern that needs to be immediately addressed, particularly since ICT is an indispensable, crucial tool in the increasingly competitive global economy. All across the universe ICT has become not only the backbone but the fundamental crux that links all information and communications technologies. Without the comprehensive knowledge and the effective use of ICT, the nation will most certainly lag behind other neighbouring developing nations in Asia and suffer the economic consequences. In order to use technology effectively, educators themselves need to be properly and adequately trained how information, communications and technology interweave and function in symbiotic correlation and they need to be fully cognitive of this before the knowledge and understanding of the complex web of ICT can be imparted to students. Subsequently, the second step is to use the process of innovation to re-think, re-model and re-apply the usage of ICT and effectively contemporize it in application to industry. Innovation is the pivotal ingredient in the current and future competitiveness of highly advanced economies. Sadly though, many people do not understand the term innovation to the detriment of themselves and the nation. Innovation springs to life and comes to the forefront when creativity is activated and exercised. The synergistic partnership forged by innovation and creativity is the yin-yang factor resulting in positive changes in working practices so that fresh thinking and fresh, new ideas are inchoated, incubated and developed with sustainability to ensure longevity. Understanding how to be creative and how innovation and lateral thinking happen simultaneously are important first steps in building a nation's creative capacity. Creativity and Innovation are ultimately the key essentials in the entire process and this is predicated upon the premise that being different is the main line of demarcation in the area of competitive advantage, which separates the mediocre from the best. This distinct advantage of being different then needs to be backed up with usable knowledge that is translatable into effective technologies and techniques that will teach and show our people how to be effectively creative and how to make innovation at work a practicable and sustainable reality. That being said, it would be overly ambitious to presume that we can immediately take giant steps in the area of innovation and creativity. It all begins realistically with small-step innovation that also has to be pervasive from the get-go in order to be functional and effective. More and more countries in the region such as Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and even Cambodia have awakened from their slumber and are fast becoming economic powerhouses. Foreign investors are banging on their doors in a frenzy to exploit the new opportunities that avail. Where once we were ranked as one of the leading economic Asian tigers, we must now seriously take caution to ensure that we do not fall behind due to complacency and lack of adequate, proper knowledge. To address this issue, the key solution is to make sure that the younger generations must be taught and trained to be much more competitive. We need to revamp our educational processes and systems and re-energise without any further delay. To achieve this, our youth must be put through the right, most effective and proven transformational processes and re-learn. Today's graduates must be able to show innovation in terms of projects and daily working practices and be able to spot creative opportunities to develop their own capabilities, knowledge and skills. What the nation needs are people who can come up with new ideas, new processes and new designs. Graduates aren't recruited just to retrofit into a role where they're expected to follow everyone else. Graduates need to become innovators – our economy needs them to become innovators in order to take us to the next level of economic ascendancy.