KUALA LUMPUR: A new type of defence industry is needed to help generate and commercialise innovation.
Deputy Defence Minister Liew Chin Tong said the practice of giving projects to defence industry companies that acted as “postmen” needed to be abolished.
“This refers to companies that acted as agents who are selling products manufactured elsewhere. We need to think of how to commercialise our own innovation.
“The ministry is drafting a Defence, Enforcement and Security Industry Blueprint and I hope that with this document we will have a clearer direction in the development of our local defence industry.
“So, our hope for the ministry is in the long run we will have a new type of defence industry which can generate and commercialise innovation.
“Although we (Malaysia) may have lagged behind compared to other countries, but with the right foundation, we are able to achieve the set direction, one step by step,” he told reporters after the Defence Ministry (Mindef) Innovation Day celebration today.
Liew said Mindef must strive to be a testpad for innovation.
“Mindef is a big ministry in terms of human resources and budgets. We need to create a conducive environment that values talent, strives for excellence and dare to test new ideas.
“For example, the Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry had expressed desire to increase the energy efficiency of the country.
“Imagine the impact that we can make if the armed forces camps are pioneering efforts to transform energy use in our offices and camps,” he said.
He also pointed out that innovation efforts in the defence sector often bring spin-off to the economy as a whole.
“For example, Internet, an innovation that enables the existence of various technologies today, is the result of a program in the 1960s by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an agency under the US Department of Defense (correct).
“Global Positioning System (GPS) is also a result of a US military programme in the 1970s, as well as SIRI, a key feature of Iphone, is also a spin-off of the DARPA-funded Artificial Intelligence project.”