Malaysia Needs To Emphasize On R&D To Become Developed Nation By 2050 - DPM
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 (Bernama) -- Malaysia needs to emphasize on the importance of research and deveopment (R&D) and innovation in the pursuit of a developed and high income nation, said Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
The deputy prime minister said in line with the National Transformation 2050 (TN50), the time has come for innovation to be a major boost to propel Malaysia to attain the target such as other major world economies that also focused on knowledge, innovation, skills and high expertise.
"While the country's R&D against the Gross Domestic Product has risen from 1.26 per cent in 2014 to 1.3 per cent in 2015, it is still low compared to some other developed countries.
"In addition to government funded R&D, the private sector should also strive to increase spending to support these R&D activities," he said when officiating the National Innovation And Creative Economy Expo 2017 (NICE'17) here today.
Also present were Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Datuk Seri Panglima Wilfred Madius Tangau and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim.
Ahmad Zahid said focus should also be given to conducting research in line with the priorities and requirements of the industry through strategic collaboration between government, industry and academics.
He said the platform is able to offer specialist services to solve production problems and strengthen cooperation between producers and research institutions as well as reduce R&D implementation costs, enhance technical knowledge and improve work processes.
Innovation also played an important role in increasing productivity of the country's economic sectors to high value and knowledge based activities, he said.
He also noted that Malaysia is ranked 37th out of 127 countries in the Global Innovation Index (GII) Report 2017 and the position could be improved through investment in the field of innovation in the country.
"We will fail as a government, a society and a nation if we failed to exploit science, technology and innovation. The solution to almost all our problems is science and technology rather than politics.
"Out there are too many sciences, but very poorly utilised. Out there are so many technologies but we have failed to use them to advance the nation."
"The reason is that we do not think scientifically, we are lazy to think and sometimes stop thinking. We separate science from our policies. We keep away technology as the best instrument to advance society" he said.
Ahmad Zahid said the development of science, technology and innovation would also help the country's leaders to cope with new economic challenges and create business opportunities in the future.
The five-day NICE 17, which began today at the National Science Centre and Planetarium here, is the nation's largest science, technology and innovation (STI) exhibition.
Some 500,000 visitors are expected to visit the expo to see the STI world development that is divided into five clusters, namely technology, entertainment, knowledge, well-being and information communications technology.
-- BERNAMA
