MALAYSIA TO FOCUS ON INNOVATION FOR FUTURE

IPOH (Perak, Malaysia), April 23 (Bernama) -- Studies on innovation will be carried out by Treasury Malaysia to ensure the country remains competitive to achieve the developed nation status by 2020, said Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah.

He said the country needed to boost these fields to make sure the country maintained its ability to compete with other countries.

"We currently see stiff competition in the world economy and we don't know if the United States or China will emerge as big powers in the future.

"Everything depends on innovation and the effect it has on foreign investors whereby many countries have made a step towards this, such as India," he told reporters after launching a gotong-royong with residents of Kampung Ulu Chepor and the General Operations Force (GOF), here Saturday.

Ahmad Husni said to start the process, the government had given attention to students at the primary, secondary and university levels to produce as many PhD graduates.

For this purpose, the government, through the Treasury, was preparing a structure on how to help companies in Malaysia produce innovative products in the future.

"The government will issue centralised contracts to help these companies as a base to allow them to cater to local and foreign orders," he said.

To realise this, Ahmad Husni said the Treasury was also studying to create centralised contacts for these products, as well as create green lanes for companies to facilitate government support for them.

He said support for these products was also necessary because the country needed to compete in the globalisation era and could no longer rely on exisiting products.