Innovation in Malaysia

Innovation in Malaysia describes trends and developments in innovation in Malaysia.

In 1971, Malaysia transitioned to export-oriented industrialization. This policy change led multinational companies to relocate to Malaysia, causing Malaysia to become one of the leading exporters of electrical and manufactured goods in the world, and is highly integrated in global trade, accounting for 6.6% of the world's export of integrated circuits and other electrical components in 2014, according to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Manufacturing contributed 60% of Malaysian total exports in 2010.^[1][2] followed by oil and gas and palm oil.^[1] Malaysia is the world's second-biggest producer of palm oil.^[1] From 2010 to 2015, the share of manufacturing and high-tech industries in Malaysian GDP has declined gradually due to concomitant growth in services, which is a natural consequence of the growth of electronics industry in Malaysia. However, high-tech services was neglected during the process, with less value being added to manufactured goods over time. As a result, the Malaysian trade surplus reduced from 2009 to 2013 from RM 144,529 to RM 91,539 with a reduction in high-tech exports.^[1] Malaysian share of global added value in high-tech manufacturing has slipped from 0.8% in 2007 to 0.6% in 2013. Over the same period, Malaysia's global share of high-tech exports (goods and services) contracted from 4.6% to 3.5%.^[1]

Malaysia is heavily reliant on revenues from oil and gas which contributed 32% to the federal government's coffers. Sharp drop in oil prices in 2014 forced the Malaysian government to maintain a 3% budget deficit in 2015.^[1]

Income inequality is also a major concern in Malaysia. Therefore, the Malaysian government introduced the Subsidy Rationalisation programme from 2010 to 2014, where natural gas subsidies were removed in stages. Meanwhile, Goods and Services Tax was introduced in 2015.^[1] Social and environmental risks include health-related problems such as rise in Dengue cases in 2013, water shortages due to pollution and overuse, natural disasters such as landslides due to land clearing, low farm productivity, environmental problems and monetary inflation.^[1] According to the World Resources Institute, Malaysia contributed about 0.9% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2012, taking into account land-use changes and forestry.^[1] Recurrent crises have pushed the government to shift expenditure towards addressing socio-economic problems.^[1] Other issues include governance issues and weak institutional capabilities in science and technology.^[1]

In 2015, the Malaysian government estimated that 6% annual growth would be necessary to reach high-income status by 2020. Thus, higher focus on innovation is necessary to achieve this goal.^[1] It's more than the average for the previous decade and average for 2016–2019 (4.8%), according to the World Bank. National Transformation Programme (NTP) was introduced in 2009, followed by Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) in 2010. ETP laid the foundation for the implementation of Tenth Malaysia Plan (2011 to 2015). ETP seeks to improve public sector efficiency, improve governance, strengthen industrial competitiveness and raise invesment. It focused on 12 growth areas, including electronics and electrical goods, oil and gas, palm oil and rubber and other sectors. The private sector would finance 92% of the ETP programme,^[1]

Malaysia's National Transformation Policy 2050 was introduced in 2017. It placed greater emphasis on science and technology, especially (STEM), and Industry 4.0 technologies like nanotechnology. It also emphasised a shift towards the use of green energy, such as solar, biomass and wind.^[3] In 2018, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry published its "Industry4WRD: National Policy on Industry 4.0". This policy aims to digitise manufacturing and services and adopt smart manufacturing.^[4] Amid COVID-19 pandemic in July 2020, "Smart Automation Grant" was launched to help firms digitalize their business processes. In February 2021, 66 SMEs and mid-tier firms in various sectors were awarded the grant.^[4] Malaysia's 2020 budget incentivises e-wallets and other cashless payment system to boost e-commerce in the country.^[4] Artificial intelligence roadmap (2021-2025) was introduced in August 2022, followed by AITalent Roadmap (2024-2030) in May 2024.^[5][6]

Basic research would fall under the purview of Ministry of Education (MoE) while applied research would fall under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MosTI). There was no mechanism for coordinating basic and applied research. MoSTI monitors innovation through surveys, number of grant applications, but lacks the exposure to monitor the coordination of industrial grants. The Malaysian government had created various funds and grant schemes since 1997, covering all stages of product development from pre-seed funding, research and development (R&D) to commercialisation. In 2014, cross-disciplinary research grants were introduced to promote innovation not only in scientific sectors but also in terms of achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). However, there was no systematic approach to monitoring the fund disbursement, progression and performance of R&D and reduction of duplication, although National Science Research Council proposed a central independent agency to coordinate R&D activities in 2014.^[1]

The federal government had produced several policies related to science, technology and innovation (STI), such as "First Science and Technology Policy" in 1986, "Action Plan for Industrial Technology Development" in 1991, "Second Science and Technology Policy" (2002-2010), and "Third Science and Technology Policy" (2013-2020). However, the latest policy is still addressing many of the targets outlined in the first policy.^[1]

Between 2008 and 2012, research spending rose from 0.79% to 1.13% of GDP. GDP grew steadily over the same period. Malaysia plans to raise this ratio to 2% of GDP by 2020.^[1] One in five (22%) of Malaysian researchers worked in the business enterprise sector in 2016, according to the same source.

Although research spending increased to 1.44% of GDP in 2016, the government has since trimmed or eliminated several funding schemes, including the Long Term Research Grant Scheme, the Transcendental Research Grant Scheme and the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme for universities.^[4]

In February 2021, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation launched the Malaysia Grand Challenge to encourage disruptive innovation and reduce reliance on foreign technologies. This body allocates funds to start-ups and SMEs through the following five new mechanisms to help them commercialize their products and services: the Strategic Research Fund, Technology Development Funds 1 and 2 (TeD 1 and TeD 2), a Bridging Fund and an Applied Innovation Fund (Yunus).

While discovery and patenting are crucial for Malaysia's export-oriented competitiveness and growth strategy, there still seems to be little return on investment in research and development. The low commercialization rate can largely be attributed to a lack of university–industry collaboration, rigidities in research organizations and problems with coordinating policies. Universities seem to confine the commercialization of their research results to specific areas, such as health and information and communication technologies. In 2010, the government established the Malaysian Innovation Agency to spur the commercialization of research.^[1][7][8]

Five years after its inception, the Malaysian Innovation Agency had made a limited impact on commercialization thus far, owing to the unclear delineation of its role in relation to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and the agency's limited resources. Nevertheless, there is some evidence to suggest that the agency is beginning to play a catalytic role in driving commercialization and an innovative culture, especially as regards innovation beyond the hardware industry, which is where firms offering services, such as airline services, are active.^[1]

One public–private funding model involves the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, a public body born of the merger of the Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia and the Palm Oil Registration and Licensing Authority in 2000, by act of parliament. Through a tax levied on every tonne of palm oil and palm kernel oil produced in the country, the oil palm industry funds many of the research grants provided by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board. These grants amounted to MYR 2.04 billion (circa US$565 million) between 2000 and 2010. The Malaysian Palm Oil Board supports innovation in areas such as biodiesel and alternate uses for palm biomass and organic waste. Its research into biomass has led to the development of wood and paper products, fertilizers, bio-energy sources, polyethylene sheeting for use in vehicles and other products made of palm biomass.^[1]

The government is keen to develop endogenous research, in order to reduce the country's reliance on industrial research undertaken by foreign multinational companies. By financing graduate study, the government helped to double enrolment in PhD programs between 2007 and 2010 to 22,000. It has also introduced incentives to encourage expatriates to return to Malaysia through the Returning Expert Programme and plans to become the sixth-largest destination for international university students by 2020. It is hoped that the creation of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 will encourage scientific co-operation among member countries.^[1][9]

The creation of these research universities resulted from the government's higher education strategy of 2006. A parallel goal of the strategy was to raise government spending on higher education. By financing graduate students, for instance, the government doubled enrolment in doctoral programmes between 2007 and 2010. According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) researchers in Malaysia tripled between 2008 and 2012 (from 16,345 to 52,052), carrying the researcher density to 1 780 per million inhabitants in 2012, which was well above the global average for 2013 (1,083 per million).^[1]By 2016, there were 2,397 researchers per million inhabitants in Malaysia, almost double the global average (1,368 per million).^[4]

Introducing a requirement for universities to collaborate with industry would be a means of supporting the commercialization of research results to boost the country's innovation performance.^[4]

Research and development (R&D) are conducted predominantly in large-scale enterprises in the electronics, automotive and chemical industries. Small and medium-sized enterprises, which make up 97% of all private firms, contribute little. This is because most of the small and medium-sized enterprises that work as subcontractors for multinational firms have remained confined to the role of original equipment manufacturers. In order to help these small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access the requisite knowledge, skills and finance that will enable them to participate in original design and original brand manufacturing, the government has adopted a strategy of connecting SMEs to the incubation facilities in the country's numerous science and technology parks.^[1][10][11]

Foreign multinational firms are generally engaged in more sophisticated R&D than national firms.^[4] However, even the R&D conducted by foreign firms tends to be confined to process and product improvements, rather than pushing back the international technology frontier. Moreover, foreign multinationals are heavily dependent on their parent and subsidiary firms based outside Malaysia for personnel, owing to the lack of qualified human capital and research universities within Malaysia to call upon.^[1]

A group of ten multinationals have decided to address these shortcomings. In order to satisfy the research needs of the electrical and electronics industries, which employ nearly 5 000 research scientists and engineers in Malaysia, Agilent Technologies, Intel, Motorola Solutions, Silterra and six other multinationals established a platform in 2012 to promote Collaborative Research in Engineering, Science and Technology (CREST^[12]) among industry, academia and the government. These multinational firms generate close to MYR 25 billion (circa US$6.9 billion) in annual revenue and spend nearly MYR 1.4 billion on research and development. They utilized government research grants extensively since the government decided in 2005 to extend these grants beyond domestic firms to multinational beneficiaries. Besides research, the focus has been on talent development, the ultimate aim being to help the industry add greater value to its products.^[1]

A total of RYM 1.1 billion (ca US$ 270 million) was allocated in the 2020 budget to five economic corridors to support projects such as the Chuping Valley Industrial Area and Kuantan Port.^[4]

Even though patent applications with the Malaysian patent office have increased steadily over the years, there still seems to be little return on investment in R&D. Domestic applications also seem to be of lower quality than those of foreign applicants, with a cumulative grants-to-application ratio of 18% between 1989 and 2014, against 53% for foreign applicants over the same period.^[1]

In addition, academic or public research organizations in Malaysia appear to have a limited ability to translate research into intellectual property rights. The Malaysian Institute of Micro-electronic Systems, Malaysia's forefront public R&D institute, which was corporatized in 1992, contributed 45–50% of Malaysia's patents filed in 2010 but the low citations that have emerged from those patents suggest that the commercialization rate is low.^[1]

Over 2016–2019, the direct contribution of nanotechnology to the economy was estimated at MYR 3.5 billion (ca US$ 800 million).^[3] The volume of scientific publications on nanotechnology rose by 14% over the 2012–2019 period. Malaysia contributed 0.64% of global output in this field in 2011 and 0.67% in 2019.^[4]

Over 2018–2020, the government launched four large-scale solar projects with capacity of 500–1 228 MW, two of which were operational by 2020. Contractors hired as part of all three projects were bound to include at least one national player. In 2019, the Sustainability Energy Development Authority began implementing the MySuria programme with the intention of installing 3-kW solar photovoltaic systems in 1 620 households from the bottom-40% income group.^[4]

In 2018, the government launched a campaign to eliminate the use of plastics and actively support the recycling of biowaste. The government also committed to reviewing the construction of new dams, owing to environmental concerns.^[4]

 This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0. Text taken from UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030​, UNESCO Publishing.

• Economy of Malaysia
• Science and technology in Malaysia
• List of Malaysian inventions and discoveries