By Samirul Ariff Othman

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) was once a key node in the country’s economic policy infrastructure. 

Established to provide rigorous, independent macroeconomic surveillance and evidence-based inputs to government and business, MIER’s original purpose was clear: to think, model, forecast, and calibrate. But in 2025, it has drifted off course. 

What used to be a respected institution has now become indistinguishable from a public-sector event organiser. It is more focused on talk shops and ticketed conferences than on structured forecasting. In short, MIER has gone soft.

Built for Surveillance, Not Seminars

To understand how far it has fallen, we must first recall what MIER was built to do. The core of its mandate rested on three flagship instruments—each linked to its surveillance role. 

First, the Corporate Economic Briefing (CEB), launched in 1997, was a closed-door platform designed to deliver timely macroeconomic insights to corporate leaders, particularly after the release of Bank Negara’s Annual Report and prior to national budget discussions. 

It served as a direct channel for MIER to transmit forecasts and market signals to the private sector, influencing pricing, capital allocation, and HR strategy. Second, the National Economic Briefing (NEB), initiated in 1990, functioned as a structured update mechanism for public and private sector planners. 

Held mid-year, the NEB refined projections in response to oil price movements, capital flows, and currency risks. It was not just a briefing—it was a calibration point in the national policy cycle. 

Finally, the National Economic Outlook Conference (NEOC), held each December, was MIER’s capstone event. 

It synthesised global and regional outlooks (including IMF and ADB data) with domestic modelling, while also convening panels on structural reform and inclusive growth. 

Together, these instruments formed MIER’s backbone, anchoring fiscal expectations and private sector planning.

From Forecasting Anchor to Talk Shop

In 2025, however, these functions have been sidelined. The CEB, NEB, and NEOC are either dormant or downplayed. In their place, MIER has elevated Brown Bag seminars—irregular, informal sessions that were never designed to carry institutional weight. 

Originally introduced in the 1980s as supplementary engagement, Brown Bags were meant to create dialogue on topical issues among researchers, students, and members of the diplomatic corps. 

They were never intended to shape policy, guide investment, or feed macroeconomic models. 

Even MIER’s own 2016 annual report acknowledged they were not part of its core forecasting programme. Yet today, they dominate MIER’s public calendar. This is not a modernisation. It is a misalignment of resources and focus.

To make matters worse, MIER has ventured into commercial territory. As highlighted in a 2025 commentary in BebasNews, MIER is now acting as a full-time event registrar—charging attendance fees, securing corporate sponsors, and running ticketed conferences. 

While revenue generation may seem pragmatic, the consequences are serious. Paid events tend to favour popular themes over technical relevance. Staff time is diverted to event logistics and branding instead of data analysis and model refinement. 

When corporates pay to attend, there is implicit pressure to deliver agreeable content. Over time, institutional independence erodes—not through scandal, but through soft compromise. 

This is how credibility declines: not suddenly, but slowly, by substituting substance with optics.

The Price of Selling Credibility

The result is a hollowing out of MIER’s strategic value. Forecasts now emerge in a fragmented manner, without connection to structured cycles like NEB or NEOC. They lack validation and carry little weight. 

MIER, once a national reference point, is now functionally indistinct from university webinar platforms or consultancy panels. It has ceded its ground to others. 

Today, it is Bank Negara’s quarterly bulletins, Khazanah Research Institute, World Bank Malaysia, and even private equity forums that set the tone for serious macroeconomic conversation in the country.

This is not just disappointing—it is risky. A think tank that does not think, model, or guide cannot remain relevant. Without its core instruments, MIER has lost the ability to shape policy expectations. 

Its forecasts drift into irrelevance. And with weakened credibility, it cannot attract high-calibre researchers, nor retain the trust of senior policymakers and business leaders. 

If this trend continues, MIER risks becoming just another government-linked NGO with a good logo but no policy leverage.

The Fix Is Simple—If There Is Will

The corrective path is not complicated, but it requires discipline. 

First, MIER must reinstate the NEOC as the country’s flagship macroeconomic forecasting forum, with structured outputs and clear modelling assumptions. 

Second, it must restore NEB and CEB to a fixed, transparent schedule—integrated into the national economic planning calendar. 

Third, Brown Bags must be downgraded to their original role: informal, optional, and secondary. 

Lastly, monetisation must stop. You cannot sell credibility. A think tank that sells tickets loses its neutrality. A think tank that chases applause cannot challenge orthodoxy.

MIER was created to provide clarity in times of uncertainty—not to sell conference passes. If it wants to regain its stature, it must return to its core purpose. 

It must stop behaving like a content vendor, and start acting like what it was meant to be: Malaysia’s independent macroeconomic compass.

*Samirul Ariff Othman is a Malaysian economist and policy strategist.*