Datuk Norhalim Yunus
KUCHING: The Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) believes the upcoming integrated phosphate plant in Bintulu will offer huge potential and business opportunities for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Sarawak.
The integrated phosphate plant, Malaysian Phosphate Additives Sdn Bhd (MPA) Sarawak, the first of its kind in the region, is located within the Salamaju Industrial Park and MTDC is a shareholder of the the upcoming plant.
According to chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Norhalim Yunus, the RM2.2 billion integrated phosphate plant in Samalaju is expected to be ready two years from now, in 2018.
“For SMEs who have technology, who can see the opportunity, there are a huge range of downstream products that can be produced from the phosphate products that we will produce by MPA Sarawak,” he said during a press conference at the Road2Funding event.
“And I think this is one of the things Sarawakian SMEs can look at as a business opportunity.”
Norhalim noted that from the government’s technology development point of view, there are huge possibilities to develop downstream phosphate industry now that we have an integrated phosphate plant in Samalaju.
He further noted that phosphate is used across the board such as in animal feed, pharmaceuticals, industrial products, in almost anything one can think of that contains phosphate.
Norhalim stressed that Sarawakian companies, SMEs and enterprises need to take the opportunity in this industry to see what are the types of projects which can be created based on phosphates.
He pointed out that these projects need technology and as such maybe they can plan now to work together with universities to look at the downstream technology that can be used.
On this note, Norhalim emphasised that entrepreneurs should cooperate and with universities as MTDC’s funds cover both public and private universities.
“We want to encourage SMEs to work with universities because if you look at the European experience, a lot of commercialisation of university knowledge is via collaborations.
“Research commercialisation is by working together, identifying issues that the SMEs faced and then working together to develop the solution and I think this is what we need.
“For example, we now have a project with one company providing robotics to the furniture industry. If you look at the furniture industry, the main problem is, its labour dependent.
“A lot of foreign workers are working in the furniture industry. So, the solution would be for productivity and efficiency is to introduce robotics. We are working now with companies to develop robotics for furniture industry.
“This is how we actually inject innovation into SMEs, into our industry,” he explained.
Companies can find the opportunities to work with universities whereby they can discover ways in which to add value to the businesses.
“That’s why we say while a company can have a turnover of RM1 billion to RM2 billion a year, but the downstream activities can rake in RM5 billion a year depending on how SMEs in swak react or take opportunity of these businesses,” he added.
On working with univerisites or research institutes, Norhalim highlighted that there is a lot of opportunities for SMEs in Sarawak to work with universities, to commercialise their research results.
One of MTDC’s most important agenda is to assist SMEs to acquire technologies and commercialise it.
Norhalim hopes that by collaborating with universities and research institutes, it will actually drive the growth of SMEs as a whole.
“The other thing we are doing now is, we are also working with universities to look at student entrepreneurship because undergraduate entrepreneurship is something we need to explore as we need to create new type of companies.
“We have conventional SMEs doing relatively conventional things. But we need to have new companies formed by graduates who are doing new things. We will also be happy to talk to graduates or undergraduates who have ideas, projects, which they want to commercialise or test,” he said.
MTDC has running programmes, undergraduate commercialisation programmes in several universities in the Peninsular and is also looking into the possibility of doing that in Sabah and Sarawak as well.
“Because, I think that’s another avenue where we can actually create new technology-based companies besides upgrading companies that are already in operation in Sarawak and Sabah at this point in time,” he added.
On the impact of MTDC funds for Sabah and Sarawak, the total allocation under the 11th Malaysia Plan amounts to RM925 million while for the year 2016, it amounts to RM155 million. The total amount approved as of May 11, 2016 numbered at RM78.5 million. Ten companies have been approved as at May 11, 2016.