KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia launches its first Social Impact Exchange, or SIX, the country's first pay-for-impact exchange.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said it is designed to parallel a traditional stock exchange and would be the focal point for funding social purpose organisations and their intervention projects.
This, he said, will be jointly implemented by Agensi Inovasi Malaysia and Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC), under the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) ambit.
Najib said this will bring even more corporate players into the fold.
According to MaGIC, SIX will be the first to channel the untapped corporate resources to high-performing social-purpose organisation (SPOs).
Najib said this was just one of the many initiatives the government has put in place since he took office in 2009.
Speaking at the Global Entrepreneurship Community Summit 2017, he said we now live in uncertain times where innovation was disrupting traditional thinking and shifting services and products to a new and more competitive level.
However, he said he was optimistic about the future and that of the central role knowledge, science and entrepreneurship play in it.
He said he did not accept the innovations was purely for start-ups and the private sector, stating that innovation must be implemented for everyone and by everyone.
Malaysia, he said, has been pursuing innovation in the public sector with NBOS which has transformed the way the government works and has made significant contribution to the national development.
"We must be prepared for the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which will bring a range of new disruptive technologies; impacting all disciplines, economies and industries.
"We cannot afford to stand on the sidelines. We must get into the game," he said.
Welcoming more than 15,000 participants from 89 countries, he dubbed GEC Summit's second edition this year as the "game changer".
He said NBOS has been a key pillar in the country's national transformation.
He said they have also followed the Blue Ocean Shift process to tackle a wide range of economic and social issues, and rapidly deliver high impact initiatives for the benefit of the people and at low cost to the government.
Najib announced that more than 90 government ministries and agencies were now collaborating to break down bureaucratic silos and develop creative and innovative initiatives to transform the nation since it was implemented eight years ago.
NBOS, he said, will continue to play a key role especially in executing the Transformasi Nasional 2050 (TN50).
"We need to keep that momentum of innovation because I believe that we are at the tipping point of a new phase of digital revolution," he said.
Najib quoted Steve Case, one of the pioneers of the internet, which said there were three major waves in digital technologies and that the world was now transitioning into the Third Wave.
"This is when digital technologies and the internet leave tradition infrastructure and move into highly regulated sectors of health, energy, transport and finance.
"This is the world of the internet of things and big data. If Steve Case is right, then the public sector will need to become far more innovative - for this stage, private sector innovation will be more dependent on public sector innovation," he added.
Najib said Futurise Center which acts as a platform to stimulate and accelerate innovation, capacity building and commercialisation of products and inventions, has been included in the 2018 Budget was one of the initiatives to prepare Malaysia for the future.
He announced that the centre will house the first United Nations Technology Innovation Lab in South East Asia and the region's first entrepreneurship internet radio, eFM, which will be driven by the Global Entrepreneurship Movement.
He said this centre, led by Cyberview with MaGIC as its strategic partners, will bring government, corporations, academia and entrepreneurs all together, addressing issues oj future technologies like smart city development, robotics and artificial intelligence.
He added that it will also be the test bed and living lab for the development of national regulatory sandboxes, allowing for policy extermination and testing of innovative ideas and business models.
He said Smart Cities, Agrotech, Digital Health, Clean Energy amd Mobility will be the regulatory sandboxes main focus in the first quarter of 2018.
Najib also handed out the inaugural Global Blue Ocean Shift Awards to recognise outstanding achievements across the public, private and social sectors around the world.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Minister of Special Functions and Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammudin Hussein and Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa accepts the Blue Ocean Shift Awards award for Malaysia's initiatives.
Also present during the opening ceremony was Higher Education Minister Datuk Idris Jusoh, Treasury secretary-general and the summit's chairman Tan Sri Dr Irwan Serigar and MaGIC chief executive officer Ashran Ghazi.