MALAYSIA HAS POTENTIAL TO BE INNOVATION HUB AMONG MUSLIM MAJORITY COUNTRIES

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 2 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is ideally suited to be a hub for
innovation among Muslim-majority countries in the world, said Dr Harold J.
Raveche, president of the private United States-based Stevens Institute of
Technology.

He said currently, Malaysia and Turkey were the top two countries in the
area of innovation among Muslim-majority countries.

Dr Raveche said that among the advantages Malaysia had were the
parliamentary democracy system and gender equity, something that was lacking in
many Muslim-majority countries and which hampered the overall development in
terms of innovation.

"There is also the diverse cultures here. Women too have key positions
here...in universities, companies and government. You can show other Muslim
majority countries you can enjoy it (develop innovation) and still can be a
good Muslim," he told Bernama in an interview here Tuesday.

The innovation and capacity building expert is here at the invitation of
National University of Malaysia (University Kebangsaan Malaysia-UKM) which
partners his institute in research projects.

He said if universities here undertook research which could sustain
innovation, it would attract many students from Muslim-majority countries such
as Indonesia and Malaysia would be able to spread innovation to many such
countries.

Dr Raveche said what was important for Malaysia was to move up from the
current knowledge-based economy to innovation-based economy which helped to
create companies and enterprises and wealth like in South Korea and Japan.

He said in oil rich Arab countries, there was no capacity to develop
innovation.

"On the surface, you see the wealth...very impressive. Below the surface, no
capacity to build wealth because they just depend on the oil," he said.

According to him, even the refineries there were not owned by the locals and
there was no capacity building for innovation.

-- BERNAMA



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