Malaysia benefits from Korean effort to establish Asean R&D network

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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is among three countries to initially benefit from Korea’s efforts to establish a research and development (R&D) network across Asean.

The others are Vietnam and Indonesia.

Towards this end, the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (Might), in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Korea and the Korea Institute of Advancement of Technology, jointly organised here yesterday the Korean-Asean Research and Development (R&D) Cooperation Forum 2013.

Supported by the Malaysia Korea Technology Centre (MyKOR), the forum seeks to enhance networks in research and development (R&D) across Asean.

This is to be achieved through the promotion and establishment of strategic alliances and cooperation in areas of technology transfer, commercialisation and investments between Korea and Asean members, starting with Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Might chairman Datuk Seri Zakri Abdul Hamid in his speech when officiating the one-day forum, highlighted that the proposal to establish the network was timely, given the impressive growth of R&D in Asian countries.

He referred to the latest report by the US National Science Foundation which said the total science spending of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan, rose steadily between 1999 and 2002.

“It reached 32 per cent of the global share of spending on science compared with 31 per cent in the US,” he added.

Might said in a statement that the text of Zakri’s speech was read by its president and chief executive officer, Mohd Yusoff Sulaiman.

He also said that MyKOR would act as the gateway for industries in Korea and Malaysia to promote technology transfer and commercialisation.

MyKOR, established in 2008, is a joint initiative between the governments of Malaysia and Korea.

The one-day forum involved more than 100 participants from Malaysia, Korea, Vietnam and Indonesia. — Bernama