12 MP: Uplifting Malaysians by accelerating tech commercialisation

While we have experienced economic or financial crises over the decades, today, we are grappling with the effects of a public health crisis of global magnitude that has impacted us for almost 600 days and counting. Striking a balance between lives and livelihoods for the immediate and medium-term will be a tall order, while weighing in the imperatives of economic empowerment, environmental sustainability and social re-engineering.

In leading an agency under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), I believe the acceleration of technology commercialisation will enable the country to attain these objectives.

The economics of innovation is a clear agenda we want to drive - with tech commercialisation being the nucleus. By focusing on a higher return on R&D conversion, we are effectively creating new jobs, reducing our dependence on foreign technology, while altogether enabling tech solutions to be more available, affordable and accessible to the rakyat.

In doing so, we will be creating targeted capacity building, enhancing technology development and ecosystem support towards effectively strengthening our security of innovation supply.

Initiatives are already in motion through the National Technology and Innovation Sandbox (NTIS) last year. Amongst others, the sandbox enables innovations to be tested in a live environment, gearing them up for market readiness in key sectors. More sandboxes will be launched, where more technologies can be tested by early stage companies, even as we uplift and expand the ecosystem.

Additionally, TPM will be upgraded to an International Innovation Hub, where we aim to impact 5,000 technopreneurs and develop 15 intellectual properties in 2022 through infrastructure and facilities, coaching and mentoring, market access as well as knowledge exchange.

TPM will also play host to the first Artificial Intelligence Park in Malaysia, and within it, we will introduce various facilities such as 5G Development Hub, Sustainable Urban Farming Incubation Facility, Biotechnology Incubation Hub and Autonomous Vehicle & Robotics Hub. All these facilities are interlinked – for example, the testing, incubation and development of Autonomous Vehicles go hand-in-hand with the development of 5G technology. This is in addition to Area 57, a 5-acre integrated Centre of Excellence for R&D by TPM to advance the development of local drone industries.

Commercially-viable solutions more often than not comprise a mix of technologies, hence it is crucial that we provide an ecosystem which encourages integration of various technologies rather than develop them in silo. With comprehensive facilities and an enabling ecosystem, we are confident we can attract higher investments, especially via the Public-Private Partnership model.

The formation of a technology commercialisation accelerator (TCA) under MOSTI, which will start operations in January next year, will provide another platform for the convergence for continuous innovation. Here, technology providers will be matched to seekers and investors in creating greater market access.

The TCA will also promote commercialisation from “grassroots to market” through a number of ways, including a programme comprising of five components:

1. Innovation Commercialisation Programme (ICP)

2. Technology Pilot Testing Centre

3. Globalisation of I.P Fund (GIP Fund)

4. Public Sector Commercialisation Initiative for Innovative and Creative Groups

5. I.P Valuation Training (IPVT)

Through these, we seek to not just increase the depth and quality of our IP bank, but also train IP valuers as well as register our IPs globally. Technopreneurs will also have access to infrastructure support, coaching and mentoring as well as a platform to conduct pilot tests.

We are cognisant that we need to strike a fine balance to fuse an applied piece of research with the right commercial partner, in the right market, to scale, at the right time.

MOSTI Minister Dato’ Sri Dr Adham Baba recently challenged the Malaysian ecosystem to create five unicorn companies within the next five years. It’s a tall task that would be impossible to achieve without strengthening the pathway for our technology and innovative solutions.

His call for better inter-agency and inter-Ministry collaboration will ensure the ecosystem is strengthened through the systems provided by the government, receiving support and enabling industry to form smart partnerships, within a space that inspires experimentation, facilitates exchange and grows budding ideas.

United, we march towards shared prosperity and uplifting the peace, prosperity and progress of every Malaysian rakyat.

This article is written by

Dzuleira Abu Bakar, CEO, Technology Park Malaysia