PETALING JAYA: The Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti) is consolidating its two agencies Technology Park Malaysia (TPM) and the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) to create a new technology commercialisation agency to accelerate Malaysia journey towards an innovation-driven economy.
The restructuring exercise, which was approved by the Cabinet today, will combine TPM’s capabilities as a physical incubator and tech infrastructure with MaGIC’s role in cultivating tech startups and innovation along with its regulatory facilitation, market access support and capacity-building capabilities.
With the initiative, the ministry aims to be better equipped to address issues such as low commercialisation rates, low gross domestic expenditures on R&D, low R&D spend by the private sector, and overlapping of roles between government agencies.
The agency’s mission will be to accelerate the creation, development and commercialisation of technology and innovation, covering the entire value chain from incubating startups to the high growth technology companies, allowing Malaysia to benefit from the technology and innovation ecosystem.
A joint task force from both agencies will oversee the creation of the new agency, led by TPM’s newly minted CEO and MaGIC former CEO Dzuleira Abu Bakar.
Mosti Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has reviewed the areas of priority which required government intervention, starting with the commercialisation agenda.
“The landscape for innovation continues to evolve at a furious pace for both tech start-ups and tech giants. We have done reasonably well in riding the wave of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), and we want to speed up the rate of commercialising our technological and innovative solutions in our push to make Malaysia a high-tech nation,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, MaGIC is inviting local startups looking to scale globally to join its Global Market-Fit Programme (GMP) 2021 which will provide them a gateway into three countries this year.
The program will assist startups navigate common obstacles when expanding into new locations, allowing them to collaborate with partners to expedite expansion as well as exploring cultures and gaining international market access.
This year, it will explore Indonesia in April with a possibility of venturing into other regions such as China, Europe and the US.
The agency’s acting CEO Amiruddin Abdul Shukor (pix) pointed out that it has always supported startups to go global and the programme will focus on those that meet specific requirements -technology readiness level 6 or Series A and beyond- to venture abroad.
“The pandemic impacted pre existing plans by many start-ups to expand and scale up. As they pivot to recover, GMP provides this unique platform for them to thrive,” he said.
For 2021, MaGIC aims to assist at least 30 companies in their international expansion, a twofold increase from last year as international borders open and markets move to post-pandemic recovery.
The programme aims to provide assistance for start-ups to accelerate growth with new product or solution market-fit strategies expanding to other countries.
GMP will feature three cohort intakes in April, June and July, with a different market exposure for each intake.
