Green technology requires adequate boost in Malaysia

For a robust green technology industry is among the six Entry Point Projects (EPPs) categorised under the two key themes of accelerating growth of differentiated sectors and developing future segments.

According to the Economic Transformation Program (ETP), this National Key Economic Area (NKEA) is projected to accelerate the business services sector’s contribution to Gross National Income (GNI) by four-fold to RM78.7 billion by 2020.

The Eco Inspirational speaker and co-founder of Maleki GmbH, Matthias Gelber said, “the government has done a good job in initiating entities like the green-tech corporation as a mandate by the government under the ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water(KeTTHA) to support the green technology economy.”

“There is a green-tech financing scheme that has been able to deploy bank loans with certain by-down of interest rates and a 60% guarantee for green technology businesses,” he said

However he also said, there are teething problems with these types of initiatives.

“Young entrepreneurs and start-up companies without track records will not benefit from this funding because ultimately banks only provide loans to companies that they see have good track records, sales and customers already. For Malaysian innovations, I think we need to do more.

“We need to look at additional financial support opportunities.” he said, adding that there is a requirement for a radical shift in taxation by making resource consumption more expensive as Malaysians tend to waste about 50 per cent more electricity and water compared to neighbouring countries.

He also said the government needs to look at shifting the current subsidies given to make resource consumption cheap to education and to entrepreneurs.

“Now this is a political potato, it is a very sensitive subject. Nobody wants their utility bills to go up but because it is so cheap people tend to waste especially the water,” he said referring to the recent water pipe set-up between Pahang and Selangor that costs about RM10 billion.

“If the subsidies can be taken away and channeled to more effective means to promote green technology, green living and a green economy that is part of the 2020 Vision then I think that would be good," said Matthias.

The government should also actively take part in "going green" initiatives.

Despite a lot of good initiatives and promotions undertaken by the government, small medium enterprises (SMEs) can gain support from the Malaysian Green Technology Corporation, he said, adding that practitioners need to notch it up to get into green procurement."

“We need the government to buy green, we need the government to buy these products rather than the run-off-the-mill products that don’t have the green features.”