PUTRAJAYA, April 21 — The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti) is restructuring two of its agencies — Technology Park Malaysia (TPM) and Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) — via a consolidation exercise to create a new technology commercialisation agency to accelerate Malaysia towards becoming an innovation-driven economy.
Mosti in a statement today said the new mandate, which was approved by the Cabinet today, would act as a technology commercialisation accelerator.
TPM is the only fourth generation technology park in Malaysia with physical incubators and tech infrastructure, while MaGIC has played an important role in cultivating technology startups and innovation ecosystem with a wide range of interventions ranging from regulatory facilitation, market access support, as well as capacity building.
“The synergy will bring together the best of both TPM and MaGIC,” it said.
The ministry said a joint task force comprising both agencies, headed by TPM chief executive officer Dzuleira Abu Bakar, would be set up to oversee the establishment of the new agency.
The initiative was aimed at equipping Malaysia to be better positioned to tackle issues such as low commercialisation rates, low gross domestic expenditures on research and development (R&D), low R&D spending by the private sector, and overlapping of roles between government agencies, it said.
Its main mission is to accelerate the creation, development and commercialisation of technology and innovation.
“Building a pipeline that encompasses the entire value chain, from startups in incubation to high growth technology companies, will allow Malaysia to strengthen and unlock value in the technology and innovation ecosystem,” Mosti said.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin was quoted in the statement as saying that in his first year at the helm of Mosti, he has reviewed areas of priority that required government interventions, starting with the commercialisation agenda.
Last year, Malaysia was ranked 33rd out of 131 economies in the Global Innovation Index 2020, improving two rungs from 2019.
Malaysia ranked second among 37 upper middle-income group economies, and eighth among the 17 economies in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania. — Bernama
