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The current biotechnology outlook in Malaysia
Stadiul actual al biotehnologiei în Malaezia
Khairiah Salwa MOKHTAR
University Sains Malaysia
e-mail: khairiah@usm.my
Ravi MAHALINGAM
University Sains Malaysia
e-mail: mitopower@yahoo.com
Abstract
Blessed with extremely rich biodiversity, Malaysia is all geared up to explore new
high technology to utilize the advantage it possesses whilst to protect its environment.
Biotechnology has been identified as an appropriate driver that can deliver economic gains
through research and development, improvement of food security, creation of
entrepreneurial opportunities for industrial growth, health and environmental
sustainability. This paper attempts to address the evolution of biotechnology institutions
and the stumbling blocks in developing the Malaysian biotechnology industry. This paper
identifies three main impediments in the current Malaysian biotechnology, namely lack of
skilled human capital; weak industrial base; and lack of commercialization effort. Besides,
a set of strategies are discussed with aim to further improve and strengthen the Malaysian
biotechnology industry. In general, the arguments are presented by mapping out the
symbiotic relationship between data from elite interviews, archival data and observations.
Keywords: Malaysian biotechnology industry, human capital, industrial base,
commercialization
Rezumat
Dotatǎ cu o biodiversitate extrem de bogatǎ, Malaezia este orientatǎ spre
explorarea noilor tehnologii înalte pentru a utiliza avantajul de care dispune şi în acelaşi
timp, pentru a proteja mediul său. Biotehnologia a fost identificată ca un driver adecvat,
care poate asigura câştiguri economice prin cercetare şi dezvoltare, îmbunătăţirea
securităţii alimentare, crearea de oportunităţi de antreprenoriat pentru creşterea
industrialǎ si un mediu sănătos şi durabil. Această lucrare încearcă să abordeze evoluţia
instituţiilor de biotehnologie şi obstacolele în dezvoltarea industriei biotehnologiei din
Malaiezia. Acest document identifică trei obstacole principale în biotehnologia actualǎ
malaiezianǎ, şi anume: lipsa de capital uman calificat; baza industrialǎ slabă; şi lipsa
efortului de marketing. În plus, sunt discutate un set de strategii cu scopul de a îmbunătăţi
şi consolida în continuare industria biotehnologiei malaeziane. În general, argumentele
sunt prezentate prin cartografierea relaţiei simbiotice între datele de la interviurile de elită,
datele arhivate şi observaţii.
Cuvinte-cheie: industria biotehnologicǎ din Malaezia, capitalul uman, baza
industrialǎ, comercializare.
JEL Classification: L65, E24, J24
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Introduction
n the last 50 years, Malaysian economy has been transformed from a
protected low income supplier of raw materials to a middle income
emerging multi-sector market economy driven by manufactured
exports, particularly electronics and semiconductors. The transition of Malaysian
economy is a fascinating story with a dramatic history that challenges many
conventional models of national development. During the pre-independence period,
Malaysian economy was largely dependent on mining, agriculture and plantation.
In plantation industry, rubber was one of the most sought after product, in regard of
the development of automobile industry in industrial countries, especially in the
United States (Drabble, 2000). Hence the rubber industry, combined with
expansion of tin mining industry, made Malaysia one of the most prosperous
economy of the era.
After independence, Malaysian economy moved into a rapid development
zone, especially in the 1960s, where the traditional export economy was renewed
by a very successful program of replanting rubber estates and production of palm
oil. In the 1970s and 1980s, the most important source of Malaysian economic
growth has been the development of a substantial oil and natural gas industry.1
During the same period of time, Malaysia followed the footsteps of the Asian
Tigers (Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea) and committed itself to transition
from reliance on mining and agriculture to manufacturing, particularly in
electronics and textiles.2 With Japan’s assistance, Malaysia’s manufacturing and
heavy industries flourished in a matter of years. As a result, Malaysia experienced
one of the highest growth rates of about 8 percent per annum from the mid-1980s
until 1997 before the country was hit with the Asian economic crisis. However, it
rebounded commendably, registering annual growth ranging from 4 to 5% since
1999.3
In the new millennium, biotechnology along with information technology
has emerged as a powerful technology that shows big potential for a number of
economic sectors. The convergence of these new technologies provides a greater
opportunity to develop better strategies and approaches to deal with current and
future economic challenges in the fields like agriculture, medicine, food
processing, environmental protection, mining, and even nanoelectronics (Zylstraa
and Kukor, 2005). Besides, biotechnology has proven to be an industry that able to
generate huge amount of revenues. For instance, the global biotech industry grew
by 10.6% in 2007 to reach a value of RM611.6 billion. And by 2012, the market is
forecasted to have a value of RM983.5 billion, an increase of 60.5% than 2007.4
While in Malaysia, the global research house Frost & Sullivan predicted that the
biotechnology industry would able to generate RM45 billion in revenues by 2013,
at an average rate of 15 per cent annually.5 This certainly has prompted the
Malaysian Government to recognise biotechnology as one of the key strategic
drivers that will propel the nation’s social and economic development further.
I
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Furthermore, biotechnology is expected to expand societal well being and wealth
creation by unlocking the value of the country’s natural resources and human
capital talents.
Importance of biotechnology to Malaysia
IBISWorld in its Global Biotechnology Industry report defined
biotechnology as “The application of science and technology to living organisms as
well as parts, products, models thereof, to alter living or non-living materials for
the production of knowledge, goods and services”.6 Actually, biotechnology is not
something new as it has been practiced since thousands of years ago, for instance
using yeast in bread, beer and wine production. Furthermore, bacteria were used to
extract minerals from ore, in agriculture and manufacturing industry to produce
food, chemicals, medicines and many other products that have been of benefit in
many areas including nutrition, and human and animal health (Duffy, 2001). Over
the time, this technology was further improved through the use of more advanced
techniques of modern biotechnology which can be used to enhance both quality
and quantity of the product (Maliro, 2001).
In Malaysia, biotechnology, by virtue of its nature, has much to offer for
the sustainable development in agriculture, environment, bio-industries and other
sectors. Since Malaysia is an agriculture country, there is a real need to engage
biotechnology to avoid losing boat with bigger industrial players. Today, the
agricultural sector contributes about 9.7 percent to the overall gross domestic
product (GDP) of Malaysia.7 However, the Malaysian agricultural sector is facing
two major challenges. The first are in the realm of addressing national food
security, as to produce sufficient amount of food to meet the national needs.8
Currently, the country is unable to produce sufficient amount of food for the
population, which led to an increase in the import of food. For instance, local rice
production are only capable to cater approximately 60-65% of domestic
requirements.9 Therefore, the shortfall is being supplemented by imported rice
from other countries like Thailand and Philippines. According to a respondent, the
second major challenge is related to creating wealth for the nation through
production of value added food and food products, which are more competitive in
the open market, and to support the manufacturing sector through production of
sufficient amount of raw materials. Hence, a crucial injection of new high
technology is required to transform the agricultural sector to be more productive
especially in meeting the specified two challenges.
Besides, Malaysia is blessed with rich biodiversity and natural resources
that are useful as a basis for the biotechnology research and development (R&D).
In fact, Malaysia is ranked 12th in the mega-diversity countries, creating the
necessary motivation to develop a biotechnology industry (Badawi, 2007). The
extremely rich biodiversity and natural resources indicates that Malaysia has a rich
gene pool comprising of an estimated 15500 known species of plants, 300 species
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of mammals, 150000 species of invertebrates with insects being the largest single
group, 1200 species of butterflies, 12000 species of moths and over 8000 species of
fishes (Latiff and Zakri, 2000). These genetic resources have long been a source of
important raw materials in agriculture and medicine. The rapid advancement in
biotechnology has increased the potential uses of genetic resources and their
economic value. For example, the global bulk drugs industry which utilises genetic
resources to develop new and improved drugs was estimated to be worth RM276.5
billion in 2005 and is expected to rise at a compounded annual growth rate
(CAGR) of 10.6% by the end of 2009.10 Furthermore, it has been reported that 33%
of drug products in the highly industrialised countries are derived directly from
plants and most of these are tropical plants growing in equatorial countries such as
Malaysia (Jusoh, 2006).
In consideration of these opportunities and challenges, Malaysia has
certainly identified biotechnology as an appropriate vehicle that can deliver
economic gains through research and development. With the strong backing of
natural resources, Malaysia is all set to venture into this high technology that are
able to improve food security, promote the sustainable use of natural resources and
at the same time create new business opportunity and employments.
Development of Biotechnology Institutions
in Malaysia
Generally, biotechnology development in Malaysia can be categorized,
(Figure 1), into four main phases; first phase was prior to 1995, second phase was
from 1995-2000 and third phase was from 2001-2005 and fourth phase was beyond
2006. The first phase of biotechnology development in Malaysia began with the
establishment of basic infrastructures, necessary equipments and set up, in addition
to basic expertise to undertake biotechnology research and development (R&D). In
the beginning, number of research institutions such as Malaysian Agricultural
Research and Development Institute (MARDI), Rubber Research Institute of
Malaysia (RRIM), Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia (PORIM), Universiti
Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) were assigned to carry out the R&D.10 Furthermore,
a National Working Group on Biotechnology was set up under the Ministry of
Science, Technology and Environment (MOSTE) to oversee and coordinate
biotechnology activities in the country.
During the second phase of development, implementation of the national
agenda on biotechnology was further enhanced with the establishment of the
National Biotechnology Directorate (NBD) under MOSTE. The objective of the
directorate is to spearhead the development of biotechnology in Malaysia through
research and related activities directed at commercializing biotechnology, and to
establish Malaysia as a leading centre for biotechnology industry. At the same
time, Biotechnology Cooperative Centers (BCC) which falls under NBD was
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established to assist in coordinating the National Programme in Biotechnology;
developing a network among universities, research institutions and industries, and
accelerate the diffusion of knowledge to the relevant industry. Besides the BCC
system, another mechanism called the Contact Group Programme was also
established by NBD to facilitate direct communication and linkage with
participating institutions of the public and the private sectors.
During the third phase of development, MOSTE proposed the
establishment of three national institutes that specializes in R&D with national
strategic importance. But after further studies and research, the Ministry proposed
that these institutes to be developed within a Malaysian Biotechnology Cluster,
known as BioValley Malaysia that are expected to best assure the success of the
institutes. Furthermore, the formation of BioValley was expected to accelerate the
research and commercialization of technologies that are crucial for the
development of Malaysia's regional and global competitiveness in the industry. The
BioValley Strategic Plan was developed through collaboration between the
National Biotechnology Directorate and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), through the Malaysia-MIT Biotechnology Partnership Program (MMBPP).
A joint workshop was held from 29 January to 2 February 2001 which was
attended by fifty three Malaysian experts from research institutions, universities,
and industry.12 The plan was based on the cluster concept where groups of
specialized companies support each other to create a center of excellence.
Companies within the cluster can take advantage of the presence of physical
infrastructures, facilities, human resource, entrepreneurship and sharing of ideas to
enable them to compete at a global level.
In May 2003, BioValley was launched by then Prime Minister, Tun
Dr.Mahathir Mohammad. But soon after its launch, there was no much
development or progress in the BioValley as expected. Although the plan was
drawn up by famed Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, the project was shrouded
by problems (Cyranosk, 2005). So much so that the plan had been overhauled and a
new strategy unveiled. On April 28, 2005, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia,
Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi launched the National Biotechnology Policy to
stimulate the biotechnology sector into a new economic engine to enhance
prosperity and wellness of the nation by 2020. To implement the policy, the
Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation (MBC) was created as a one stop agency to
spearhead the development of the sector, including coordination of regulatory
policy among different agencies. MBC is overseen by an Implementation Council
and advised by an International Advisory Panel, both under the leadership of the
Prime Minister of Malaysia. MBC, which come under the purview of the Ministry
of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), are responsible to facilitate the
market driven R&D and commerce via funding and industry development services;
and catalyzing commercial spin offs to the private sector (Ahmad, 2005). As a
continuous effort to develop biotechnology industry, government of Malaysia has
introduced a mechanism called BioNexus. BioNexus is essentially a network
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of ‘centre of excellence’ throughout the country, comprising companies and
institutions which specialize in specific biotech subsectors (Yunus, 2006). As to
date, three centres of excellence have been established as part of the BioNexus,
namely the Centre of Excellence for Agro-biotechnology (MARDI and UPM);
Centre of Excellence for Genomic & Molecular Biology (UKM); and Centre of
Excellence for Pharmaceuticals & Nutraceuticals (USM and UPM).
The activities in the fourth phase of the development are best explained by
the 9th Malaysia Plan (2006-2010) in particular, Chapter 6 of the Plan. Under the
9th Malaysia Plan, the government of Malaysia allocated US$550 million for
biotechnology development (Abdullah, 2006). The government recognizes the
importance of a conducive regulatory framework to ensure the success of its
biotechnology endeavor. In this regard, the promotion of foreign and domestic
investments and close collaboration with foreign entities to access new technology,
expertise and markets will be intensified. At the same time, efforts are being taken
to improve the Intelectual Property (IP) policy and management framework in
order to foster innovation and safeguard investment in the biotechnology sector.
Stumbling-blocks in Malaysian Biotechnology
From a public policy perspective, we are still really in the world of
expectations when we talk about biotechnology, especially in Malaysia. In
Malaysia, the hype, expectations, and variations of prospect in biotechnology are
often detailed in many different reports. However, the problem with biotechnology
in Malaysia is that many of these expectations have not yet been realized except in
very small ways. According to interviewed respondents, although the National
Biotechnology Policy was well documented, the problems often arise in the
implementation stage. This is largely due to the lack of skilled human capital, lack
of industrial bases and many research products have no commercialization values.
Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary science and it is an area that needs
high capacity of human resources to achieve substantial benefits. Biotechnologist
apart from having a good basic knowledge of basic molecular biology requires
knowledge in bioinformatics, information technology, engineering, statistics,
genetic epidemiology, business management, product development and legal issues
(Puchooa, 2004). Therefore, thrust five of the National Biotechnology Policy
(NBP) focuses on building human capital in biotechnology through education and
training.
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Figure 1. History of biotechnology development in Malaysia
Prior 1995: Initial Institutional Development
Research Institutions: MARDI, PORIM (now
MPOB), PRIM (now MRB)
Public Universities: UPM, UKM, UM, USM
National W
orking
Group on
Biotechnology
National Biotechnology Directorate
Biotechnology Cooperative Centers (BCC) Contact Group Programme
1995
Malaysia - MIT Biotechnology Partnership Program (MMBPP)
Joint Workshop: Malaysian E
xperts from Rese
arch Institutions,
Universities & Ind
ustry
29 Jan-2 Feb 2001
BioValley Strategic Plan
BioValley Malaysia
National Biotechnology Policy
Malay
sian Biotechnology
Corporation (MBC)
1. National Implementation Council
2. International Advisory Panel
National Biotechnology Division
(BIOTEK) (formerly known as National
Biotechnology Directorate)
May 2003
Did not perform well
9
th
Malaysian Plan (2006-2010)
Improve Intellectual Property (IP) Policy & Management Framework
Bionexus
Creation
Malaysian Biotechnology Information Centre (MABIC)
2000
7
th
Malaysian Plan (1996-2000)
8
th
Malaysian Plan (2001-2005)
April 28, 2005
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However, the current statistics shows that there is an alarming shortage of skilled
manpower trained in biotechnology. According to the figures released by MOSTI,
there were only 507 students graduated with minimum qualification of masters
during the period of 8th Malaysian Plan.
Number of students graduated from top-down RMK-8 Research Project
Table 1
Priority Graduates
Areas Post Doctoral PhD Master Total
Animal 3 43 78 124
Plant 2 5 13 20
Food - 8 26 34
Biopharmacy - 16 49 65
Medical - 28 58 86
Molecular Biology 2 32 95 129
Environment/industry - 19 30 49
Total 7 151 349 507
Source: BIOTEK, MOSTI (as May 2008)
Human capital in terms of fresh undergraduates is definitely not lacking in
Malaysia as there are many universities and private colleges offering biotechnology
courses at undergraduate level. As a result, an average of 1900 students majoring in
biotechnology or biotechnology related programmes graduates from public higher
learning institutes every year (see Table 2). But despite the huge number of fresh
graduates, biotechnology companies in Malaysia is facing problem in securing the
right candidate to fill various job portfolios. This is because these fresh graduates
are very much lacking in hands-on experience and incomprehensive in meeting the
demands of biotechnology companies. A respondent acknowledged that the
problem actually lies deep within the Malaysian tertiary education system which is
still practicing the traditional approach where the students are only trained
academically while missing out soft skills needed by the industry. Hence, we can
say that the human capital management in Malaysia is not equilibrium with the
biotech industry’s need and demand.
Although the focus on building human capital in biotechnology is vital and
crucial step to fuel the growth of biotech industry, the effort is considered waste
without having a strong industrial base. Obviously, Malaysia is lacking in this
aspect which is important to absorb and train young scientist churned out from
local and foreign universities. According to Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation
(BiotechCorp), there were only 13 public-listed biotechnology and life-sciences
companies in 2008, an increase of 18% than in 2007. At the same time, there were
92 companies with Bionexus status and most of them are small and medium size
enterprises. The relatively small and feeble biotechnology industry in Malaysia is
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obvious with unimpressive market capitalization of RM 2.5 billion in 2007 and this
figure decreased 32 percent in 2008 to RM1.7 billion.13
Students graduated from the Public Higher Learning Institutes (Biotechnology and
biotechnology related programmes)
Table 2
Academic
Session
Field (B.Sc) 2005/06 2006/07
Biochemistry 69 51
Molecular Biology 0 0
Microbiology 41 74
Plant Biotechnology 33 23
Plant Science 162 183
Animal Science/ Zoology 25 44
Food Science 726 472
Marine Science 132 70
Bioinformatics 0 16
Genetic 33 15
Pharmacy/ Pharmacology 256 327
Biotechnology 268 266
Forensic Science 27 35
Biomedic 352 227
Total 2124 1803
Source: Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (MOHE)
Comparing to Australian biotechnology industry, the market capitalization
of the health sector alone has reached RM110.9 billion, with the life science sector
in particular growing in value by 81 percent over the past five years. According to
a new PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) BioForum biotech industry report, the
market capitalization of the 111 Australian life science companies grew from
RM28.7 billion to RM52 billion representing an 81 percent increase.14 According
to a respondent, the relatively weak biotechnology industrial base in Malaysia is a
result of interest clash between the scientists and investors. Biotechnology is a huge
investment industry and the profits can only be enjoyed after few years of
operation. Investors who don’t understand the complexity of the biological
processes often become disillusioned and not interested in this industry. Apart from
that, lack in number of locally available skilled and knowledge workers also
shunned away the potential investors, who are willing to invest in neighboring
countries like Singapore despite a higher set up cost.
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In Malaysia, many researches are conducted mainly at public universities
and public research institutes. Although the volume of researches is encouraging,
the number of research products with commercialization value is disappointing.
One of the factors that lead to lower commercialization in Malaysia is the fact that
most researches are funded by the government or governmental agencies with only
0.68% university R&D funding coming from the industry as compared to the more
advanced countries, such as Canada (11.8%), Germany (7.5%), UK (6.2%) and the
USA (5.5%) (Jusoh, 2007). Typically, the government agencies won’t provide
proper guidelines compared to industries, which helps the local scientist to
commercialize their products as most of them don’t have sufficient knowledge
about business, Intellectual Properties (IP), and marketing. Furthermore,
commercialization also depends on the intention of the patent owners. Some patent
owners apply for patents to protect future research rather than seek
commercialization. At the same time, some products such as pharmaceuticals may
require regulatory approvals from relevant authorities and this process can
consume huge amount of money as well as time. As a result of bureaucracy, many
scientists tend to shun away even if their research products have high
commercialization value.
Comparison of the product commercialization in Malaysia with that of
other countries with active biotechnology industry suggests that the lack of
connectivity between the universities and research institutes with industries may
hinder the commercialization activities. Rasli (2005) acknowledged that
commercialization of R&D has not been traditionally a high priority of universities
in Malaysia. During the 7th and 8th Malaysia Plans, only 5.1% out of 5232 R&D
projects implemented were considered as having commercialization potential but
none of them was commercialized on a national scale (Mokhtar, 2005). The key
reason behind the poor university-industry linkage in Malaysia is due to the lack of
biotechnology industrial base. The current biotechnology industries in Malaysia
prefer to be labor intensive and not invest into R&D in technology to gain
competitive advantage. A respondent states that even though universities in
Malaysia begin to realize the importance of product commercialization, the effort
to date has been quite modest.
Interviews with some of the prominent industrial players involved in the
National Biotechnology Policy making process revealed that apart from the
problems mentioned above, the Malaysian government still unable to fine-tune a
proper working mechanism for the biotechnology industry. This is due to over
consultations with the different interest groups such as academicians, scientists,
and investors made government indecisive to make bold decisions and actions.
Furthermore, some of the consultants engaged were foreign based and according to
the respondents, these consultants taken easy way to reproduce the findings
prepared by the local consultants with some adjustments. Although the foreign
consultants have included new ideas and suggestions, the respondents clearly felt
that they have overdone with the documents since they doesn’t know the
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environment and real situation about Malaysian biotechnology industry. Hence,
many of the suggestions were only good in paper and impractical in the real
situation.
Strategies to strengthen the biotechnology industry
Although there are some hiccups in the current biotechnology sector in Malaysia,
the government strongly regards biotechnology as a technology which is not only
important for the economical well-being but also for a clean, efficient and
pollution-free environment. In order to accomplish the full potential of
biotechnology with significant impact on society, Malaysia should begin to create
environment conducive for R&D and innovations to achieve the perceived agenda
and objectives. There is severe need in dynamic adjustments, both at institutional
as well as at social levels in Malaysia. But first and foremost, the government itself
must change its approach and strategies in developing the biotechnology industry.
All this while, the Malaysian government has been practicing the
‘functional industrial policy’ when developing the biotechnology industry. The
‘functional industrial policy’ refers to a policy by which the state confines itself to
stimulating an ideal market by fulfilling general economic functions (Haque,
2007). Contrary to much developed countries like Japan and Singapore, their
biotechnology industry was developed through the ‘sectoral industrial policy’
approach. The ‘sectoral industrial policy’ refers to a policy by which the state
directs resources to targeted industries identified as crucial for their future
competitiveness (Nolan and Pack, 2003). For a developing country with limited
capital and relatively small market size, it is sometime argued that Malaysia should
begin to concentrate and support its biotechnology industry to achieve sufficient
economies of scale to compete in world markets, and then use the benefits of the
industry to stimulate other domestic sectors. In another word, Malaysia should
adopt a sectoral industrial policy to subsidise technological upgrading; to help
industrial players move away from low-tech production and areas of established
competitiveness. However, the effectiveness of a sectoral industrial policy is very
much depends on the ability of government, which is shaped by socio-political
factors such as the internal working mechanism of a government and its
interactions with various interest groups.
In this aspect, Malaysia should look at Singapore’s ability in developing
their biotechnology industry. Lacking in natural resources and land supply as
compared to Malaysia, Singapore has fewer alternatives but to commit to higher
value-added industry such as biotechnology. Despite a small domestic market,
Singapore was focused in facilitate and support its biotechnology endeavor. Part of
its sectoral effort, Singapore government directed the universities, especially the
science and engineering departments to orientate toward market-driven
technological research and international linkages. As Singapore was lacking in
skilled human capital in the field, the country began to recruit expatriates to run the
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industry. Besides, the government contributed substantial financial support to train
undergraduate and post-graduate in the field of bioscience. Many schemes were
established to support personnel from the industry and academic for taking short
courses and research attachments overseas; and to encourage companies to send
employees to local universities to work on projects for technological learning (Tan
and Byrne, 1996). Furthermore, Singapore also established a conducive legal and
regulatory climate to promote R&D and investments for the industry. Singapore is
a signatory of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), a patent approved in the
country is valid in the other 44 PCT countries including US and Western European
Countries (Eisenberg, 2001). The formulation of the patenting schemes was one of
the masterstroke step taken by the Singapore government to enhance its
biotechnology industry.
Malaysia also may draw some lessons from Cuba’s experience in
developing their biotechnology industry. Biotechnological development in Cuba
was given a substantial boost as a result of an epidemic of dengue fever that broke
out in 1981.15 Since then, Cuba was very much focused on developing their health
care sector using biotechnology. Modern biotechnology was used to facilitate
product diversification and import substitution especially vaccines. Besides, Cuba
recognizes that participating in the global market involves forging alliances with a
wide range of enterprises, especially those that have extensive marketing networks.
Cuba’s biotechnology industry is an example of the importance of political
leadership on technological matters, domestic funding for research activities,
creation of appropriate research institutions, and international alliances for product
commercialization.
Unless purposeful action is taken to move towards new activities, Malaysia
may not be able to overcome the current shortcomings that are backlogging its
biotechnology industry. Hence, Malaysia should seriously begin to focus on
solving the shortcomings, especially in the aspect of human capital; funding;
commercialisation effort; and technical collaborations to strengthen their industrial
base.
The key strategy to foster the development of biotechnology industry is the
building, mobilization as well as the efficient utilization of scientific expertise
through training and education. In this aspect, new curriculum should be developed
to cater the needs for the required human resource. The Ministry of Science,
Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) and Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE)
should work together in developing syllabus and curriculum which is on par with
the industry’s requirement and demand. Graduate and undergraduate training
underpin the development of in-country capability in the basic biological sciences.
This is vital in the effort to produce highly qualified and skilled human capital.
Malaysia also should improve the current post-doctoral fellowship system by
establishing considerable number of postdoctoral fellowships which are a key
component of keeping abreast of the latest advances worldwide. Besides, Malaysia
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should consider recruiting expatriates or professional scientist from foreign land, at
least for the start, to run the industry along with local manpower.
Although Malaysia is allocating considerably fair amount of money for the
research and development purpose, the funding should be focused on the niche area
of R&D only. Since biotechnology is a high cost venture, there is a special need for
long term planning in resource allocation for the optimal utilization of any
infrastructure set up. The drying-up of funds at intermediate stages and limited
operating budgets are identified as a main cause for low achievements and have
reduced benefits to a fraction of that expected. In this aspect, Malaysia may follow
Cuba’s strategy in sectoral funding for research activities. With proper financial
planning providing for sustained funding, R&D in Malaysia can become more
efficient and productive.
Comparison of the biotechnology development in Malaysia with that of
Singapore or other countries with active biotechnology networks suggests that the
absence of collaboration and technical network could have limited the development
of the industry. Therefore, alliances between the country’s public biotechnology
R&D agencies and leading private companies which form the pool of scientific
expertise in biotechnology could help in building competent and competitive
industry. So far, research collaborations in Malaysia are usually set up by
individual institutions with specialized local or foreign laboratories on specific
projects only. Hence, there is a pressing need for Malaysia to join as many research
networks as possible, particularly those involving other developing countries with
comparable economic status and similar research interests. However, this effort
would require continues public sector investments from domestic and external
resources, innovative funding mechanisms from international development
agencies, and involvement of both local private sector companies and transnational
companies. At the same time, joint ventures or collaborations between local and
foreign companies would encourage product commercialization. Foreign
companies may need the market and access to natural resources whilst local firms
need access to the technology. The win-win situation will not only enables the
domestic firm to get full access to the protected knowledge of the foreign firm, but
also provide a suitable platform to commercialize their research products.
Conclusion
Overall, it must be concluded that the biotechnology industry in Malaysia
is still in the infant stage. Even though Malaysia has introduced National
Biotechnology Policy in 2005, the desired result is yet to be seen as consequences
of unfavourable implementation. Thus, Malaysia needs to clearly redefine and
focus on the national agenda with planned strategy to best achieve them. Generally,
most of the constraints that are holding back the biotechnology sector in Malaysia
can be resolved with the appropriate policies. Furthermore, biotechnology needs to
be addressed from a global point of view, from human resource development to
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commercialisation. Manpower training will play a determinant role and emphasis
should be put on producing high-level scientists rather than technicians. With the
need to extend these skills, the strategic planning will have to make ample
provision for human resource development with greater role by MOSTI and
MOHE. It will also be of vital importance for Malaysia to join as many
biotechnology research networks as possible as we cannot progress in isolation.
These networks, in addition to providing local scientists with opportunities for
training, collaboration in research and the acquisition of new technology at low
cost, can become important technical forum to help Malaysia develop a strong
biotechnology base. As we move into the future, proper funding and planned
investment in the right biotechnologies can help to promote sustainable use of
natural resources and at the same time create new wealth for the country.
End Notes
1.
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4.
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www.piribo.com/publications/biotechnology/biotechnology.html
5.
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23143845/Artice
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wiki/ Economy _ of_Malaysia
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Malaysia. Asian Biotechnology and Development Review. Retrieved July 15, 2009,
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11.
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