MALAYSIA ADOPTS BALANCED APPROACH ON INNOVATION, SAYS MINISTER

From Newmond Tibin

MUNYONYO (Uganda), July 29 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is prioritising a balanced
approach between technology-driven and market-driven innovations in order to
sustain its global competitiveness.

Towards this end, the government has introduced the National Innovation
Model, said Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Dr Maximus
Ongkili.

"In a technology-driven innovation model, scientists are funded for research
and development and the technology will be developed organically, thus
eventually commercialising their ideas for the global market," Ongkili said.

"This was the method most predominantly taken by Malaysia prior to the
establishment of the National Innovation Model," he said when delivering his
talk on innovation at the 19th Global Smart Partnership Dialogue here Tuesday.

Ongkili said "in a market-driven innovation model, the market is determined
before hand by knowledge technopreneurs who will acquire the best science and
technology leading to rapid commercialisation to meet market demands".

He said the success of this model depended on strong committed and
innovative political leadership and a comprehensive well-coordinated National
Innovation System (NIS) which involved interactions between key stakeholders.

At least six major elements are in the NIS, including government policy
coordination, innovation support, education and training, technopreneurial
involvement by the industry, and strong and productive research and development
(R&D) sector within the academia, research institutes and industries, he said.

"These are well supported by an innovative financial sector to provide
venture capital, financial support and investment," he added.

Ongkili said that 2010 was recently declared the "Year of Innovation and
Creativity" with the involvement of eight ministries to promote innovation to
all sectors of economy and grassroot communities.

Among the many programmes planned are an ideas carnival at national, state
and district levels, and an international summit on innovation as well as a
national festival of ideas, he said.

Ongkili also said that Prime Minister Mohd Najib Tun Razak, is a
key advocate for innovation.

This, he said, was reflected in his recent statement that for Malaysia "to
strive and compete, we must leverage on our creativity and innovativeness to
provide that critical difference".

-- BERNAMA