Plantation Firms Urged To Increase Research On Biodiesel

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 (Bernama) -- Plantation companies should prop up their research efforts to promote palm oil as the main option for biodiesel, said an economist. Professor Dr Jomo Kwame Sundaram said the country was in dearth of research efforts to promote palm oil in biodiesel production and it was a big challenge for Malaysian companies to be technological leaders in the field. "The big challenge now is where we go next...and there is a huge opportunity coming from the need for renewable fields and palm oil is the cheapest vegetable oil. "It has the greatest potential to be the most successful (ingredient in) biodiesel. If it stays behind, another research which promotes another oil as the basis of biodiesel, then we will lose the opportunity," said Jomo. Jomo, who is also the Visiting Senior Fellow at Khazanah Research Institute, said this to reporters on the sidelines of the first day of the Khazanah Megatrends Forum 2016 here Monday. Earlier, he delivered the opening address at the forum. "We have one company that is so dominant in palm oil, which is Sime Darby. But even then, I do not see a huge effort in this direction. I'm hoping that there would be breakthrough in the public sector," he added. Meanwhile, Jomo said the government needed to focus on addressing foreign labour and ageing population issues. "When you have cheap foreign labour available, it will limit the likelihood of technological innovation, which should be labour displacing," he said. On retirement age, Jomo said some countries had imposed a policy whereby workers would hit their peak income when they reach 50 or 55. "After that, you are allowed to continue to work for as long as you want but the income goes down," he added. -- BERNAMA