KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's research and development intensity is relatively low at 1.13 per cent when compared to the top five research-intensive countries, namely South Korea, Israel, Japan, Sweden and Finland.
Malaysia has not spent enough for R&D activities, says Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) CEO Datuk Azman Mahmud.
He was speaking at the launch of an international research conference which MIDA has collaborated with the University of Nottingham Malaysia campus.
Towards an improved national innovation ecosystem, MIDA offers R&D incentive programmes that can enjoyed by manufacturers with in-house R&D facility or research service providers.
To date (since the mid 1990s), MIDA has approved 167 R&D projects with total investments of RM2.27 billion.
These comprise 72 contract R&D, 54 in-house R&D, 26 approved R&D companies and 15 R&D status companies.
"They are mainly in pharmaceutical, chemical, healthcare, machinery, electrical and electronics, automotive, energy, medical devices, palm oil and food production industries."
These projects have created about 5,355 quality job opportunities which are mostly in the science and technical fields.
Under the 2016 Budget, the government has introduced a new incentive to broaden the manufacturing ecosystem sector towards producing more high-value, diverse and complex products.
Intensifying innovation through strategic collaborations in R&D activities is one of the key components that would enable businesses to remain competitive and sustainable.
The two-day conference provides an international forum for exploring funding opportunities related to research.
The first session features a panel on government grants available for universities and companies to conduct R&D and commercialisation while the second part tackles post research opportunities.