In the 16th century, Holland become the richest nation on Earth due to its advanced technology in building cargo ships and warships.
But it was taken over by the United Kingdom, which employed Dutch shipbuilding experts to reduce the cost of labour of building ships in the UK.
This enabled the UK to conquer many nations and become the biggest global empire.
In the 17th century, China and India were superpowers due to their agricultural output and having the largest cotton and cotton material production.
Britain put tremendous effort into creating new technologies in farming and manufacturing to take advantage of raw materials that come from its colonies.
This was the beginning of the Industrial Revolution that changed the world.
The UK invented machine-powered cotton textile equipment, making the production output of one UK textile worker equivalent to 500 Chinese or Indian workers.
Steam-powered locomotives and ships made transporting goods in the UK and exporting UK-made goods to the world much cheaper and faster.
These factors made the UK a superpower in the 19th century, before the United States took over in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the invention of electricity, allowing America to start mass manufacturing of products.
Building vehicles for mobility and transportation made it easy and fast to conduct business.
Then the last quarter of the 20th century saw the creation of computers, software, the Internet and the use of nuclear technology.
Today, the US is the world's largest economy. Japan, which had access to US technology, was once the second largest economy.
The dawn of the 21st century saw tremendous growth in China's technology development and as the manufacturing centre of the world.
China's government pours billions into state enterprises and private companies to develop new technologies and acquire foreign companies that have the technology or patented technology needed to fulfil the Chinese president's 2015 "Made in China" mission.
Within 20 years, China became the world's second largest economy, with technology that is on a par and some say more advance than the US.
One example is artificial intelligence technology for full self-driving vehicles. The most common job in the US is a driver. More than six million drivers work in ride-hailing, trucking and online business delivery transport.
Full self-driving vehicles can greatly reduce the cost of transportation, be it in the domestic market or in the export market.
Japan, South Korea and Germany are working on 100 per cent automation in the mass manufacturing of products. This technology is provided by a limited number of well-established companies.
For that reason, the Chinese government provided funding to the Midea Group of China to acquire Kuka AG of Germany in 2016 for US$6 billion.
Kuka AG was only a leading supplier of robots until it acquired FATA Automation Group of Italy's mass production automation technology and its more than 300 patents for the technology.
Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai and Gigafactory Berlin used Kuka AG's production system. Same with most of China's automobile manufacturers.
In 2000, Malaysia could have bought 70 per cent of FATA Automation Group and its technology and patents, including its subsidiaries in the US, Germany, the UK, Brazil and Argentina, for US$250 million.
Had Malaysia gone ahead with the purchase, it would have catapulted us into becoming one of only five nations that have that technology. Our private sector is not doing much to develop new technology or Fourth Industrial Revolution products.
For example, the technology used in the oil and gas service sector has been the same ones used
to develop Malaysia's offshore oil and gas platforms since the 1980s.
In the downstream sector, foreign companies manage the gas and petrochemical plants.
As for where Malaysia is heading in Fourth Industrial Revolution technology development and product manufacturing, no one can answer.
If no serious efforts is done to catch up, we will be left behind by fast-developing Indonesia and Vietnam.
The writer is head of the Innovative Electromobility Research Lab, School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Mara
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times