:: Why Malaysia Has to Be Innovative to Compete Globally? What is Genovasi? ::

Salam Mesra Dari Nina Syakina
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Why Malaysia has to be innovative?

The answer is SIMPLE!

The next driver for the Malaysian economy will be innovation. 
That is why Malaysia has to be innovative.

Innovation is driven by the ability to see connections, to spot opportunities and to take advantage of them. It can be a driver to exploit radical breakthroughs in technology.

By the way, do you know, what is innovation all about? 
Innovation is a combination of ideation; concepts; creativity; invention; and patents towards commercialization of products, processes or services. Innovation refers to both radical and incremental changes to products, processes or services and it must involve risks.

Why innovative?

The rapid rate of technological development has led to an increase in the pace of change, and globalisation and deregulation have led to increased competition. To survive in this world, organisations need to be continuously creative and innovative, especially in high wage economies and entrepreneurial societies.



Why Malaysia has to be innovative to stay competitive and relevant among the developing countries?  

To be innovative, nations and organizations must keep on changing with the environment and time. New products, services and concepts will have to be invented in the shortest possible time in the light of the stiff competition, more so in the global market. If an organization is complacent with whatever products or services that it produces or provides for, then the creative destruction mechanism will disadvantage it or at the extreme, kill its products and services. So Malaysia will have to be innovative in order to survive in the tough competitive environment to remain relevant. Malaysia has to survive and grow economically. The way forward is to be innovative in policies, production and services to stay relevant, if not ahead of other nations in this region.

 

Besides, according to Global Innovation Index, Malaysia is ranked 32 out of 141 economies in the world. Malaysia is praised for providing conducive market sophistication and business sophistication. Ease of getting credit, conducive investment environment, and healthy trade and competition contributed to good scores for market sophistication. The availability of knowledge workers, and high knowledge absorption and adoption, has contributed to high scores for business sophistication. However, institutions, infrastructure, and human capital and research have dragged down Malaysia's innovation ranking. There are only 715.4 researchers over a million population (rank 64). Malaysia is also cited to have low creative output and low knowledge and technology output. Malaysia scored poorly in providing creative goods and service and involvement in online creativity. Only ICT business model creation and ICT organizational model creation provides good score. Low knowledge and technology output is reflected by low patent activity and low output of scientific and technical articles. Hence, Malaysia has poor innovation efficiency (rank 84) due to low innovation output.

The latest World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report ranked Malaysia the 21st most competitive out of 142 economies it surveyed. However, in the Innovation Sophistication category, Malaysia  was ranked 24th for quality of scientific research institutions, and 32nd for utility patents granted per million population. In the category of Technological Readiness, Malaysia ranked 28th for firm-level technology absorption; 40th in Internet users per 100 population, 60th in Internet bandwidth (Kb/s) per capita, and 62nd in Broadband Internet subscriptions per 100 population. Earlier this year, the Institute of Management Development (IMD) released the results of its survey of the competitiveness of 59 economies. Malaysia ranked 35th in the category of business expenditure on R&D as percentage of GDP; 38th in total expenditure on R&D as percentage of GDP; 42nd in terms of total R&D personnel nationwide in business enterprises, and 45th in terms of scientific articles published. These are not impressive figures. We must improve our record in the creation and commercialization of intellectual property.

That is why Malaysia need to change! Malaysia has to be innovative to stay competitive and relevant among the developing countries. It is because the country with an innovation-driven economy will enable the nation to further develop its science and technology sector. This needs to be happen if the country aspires to surge ahead of countries already famous for their science and technology prowess, like Japan.

That is why, Malaysia need to do something and change it!

Malaysia have to ensure that all groups in society collaborate and move in the same direction. Malaysia are looking at making funding more accessible and streamlined. Malaysia is introducing innovative thinking skills in the education system to produce an innovative workforce that can satisfy future industry needs. There is no question that we need to step out of our comfort zone and speed up our own development pace if we are to continue to be relevant in the international community. With the global economic landscape undergoing transformation at a rapid rate, the ability of any nation to adjust and embrace change will determine its prosperity.

Besides that, Malaysia has to be innovative as to create around maximizing existing resources such as talent, intellectual capital and intellectual property to generate the new wealth. That is why, Malaysian have to survive and grow economically and be innovative in order to survive in the tough competitive environment to remain relevant. 

What do we have to do? What do we had done?

The government has taken a number of policy measures to get the economy moving in this direction. Government and GLC procurement policies, for example, are being changed to support local innovative products and services. Besides, the establishment of Unit Inovasi Khas (UNIK) in the Prime Minister's Office is also help Malaysia to formulate policies and strategies to promote innovation in the country. With the setting up of UNIK's implementation arm Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM), Malaysia now have the institutional structure to undertake an organised and sustained programme of innovation initiatives. These initiatives are designed to improve the innovation eco-system and create New Wealth from innovation in Malaysia. 

Besides, universities have also been assigned the role of R&D centres to collaborate with the private sector.  Universities have special responsibility due to this. There is an expectation these days that institutions of higher learning should serve not only as centres of learning, but also as founders and incubators of ideas that can be transformed into commercially viable products. So, it is not surprising to see universities forming start-up companies to market their research. Universiti Kuala Lumpur is also the best example as to be centre of a technopreneur culture. Their vision is to become the premier entrepreneurial technical university in the country by 2020 through excellence in research, education, training, entrepreneurship, consultancy and community services. Their  esearch activity is focused on developing new technologies and products to support our techno-entrepreneurship ventures with their researchers, graduates and industrial partners. The university partners with many other local and international universities and research institutions to bring closer research knowledge into successful application and commercialisation.

In these circumstances, there is the need for intervention programmes to promote innovation-led entrepreneurship. This has to be done in a way that will have a lasting and institutionalised impact on society. 

The government is banking on improved collaboration between academia and industry to identify ideas and products than can be developed and brought to market. It is also putting in place a regulatory framework that will provide the funding support for these activities. 

Due to this, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato' Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak establishment of Genovasi as an innovation organisation where young Malaysians will be able to receive an induction into innovation is spearheaded by Unit Inovasi Khas (UNIK) under the Prime Minister's office.

Genovasi? What is GENOVASI all about?

Genovasi are combination of Generasi and Inovasi or The Innovation Generation. The establishment of Genovasi as an innovation organisation where young Malaysians will be able to receive an induction into innovation is spearheaded by Unit Inovasi Khas (UNIK) under the Prime Minister's office. Genovasi will provide young professionals and graduates with a one-of-a-kind opportunity to become Innovation Ambassadors via the Innovation Ambassador Development Programme. Innovation Ambassadors will be catalysts for change to spread the concepts, best practices and applications of innovation. Genovasi also have a vision that can form a person's self esteem, professionalism and smart to solve problems and taking up challenge to create young generation skillful in creating or improving idea. It gives advantages to young people for realize their dream of becoming a country drive. But it still new. We can't predict anything from this until they come out with the best result. Just wait and see!

 I am confident that these measures will produce results in the near future, and remain optimistic that GENOVASI can transform Malaysia into an innovation-led economy. 

::nina says::

This entry is specially made for my Innovation and Management subject lecturer,

Pak Din aka Abah

visit his page here.