Public urged to be bold in acquiring innovative products, technologies

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JASIN: Malaysians have been advised to be bold in spending their money to acquire latest innovative products and technologies to improve their daily lives.

Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Abu Bakar Mohamad Diah said most people now were more willing to spend their money for certain gadgets for personal satisfaction, such as smart phones, but not many were willing to buy innovative products to ease their daily lives.

“Many innovations such as energy-saving, biotechnological, pharmaceutical and herbal products have been developed and recognised, but unfortunately, ignored.

“The cold reception of the community had somehow resulted in these products having problems to penetrate the market,” he told reporters at Merlimau Polytechnics here yesterday.

Earlier, Abu Bakar officiated  at the 1st Conference On Engineering, Technology and Education 2016 which was a collaboration of five local universities namely  Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia, Universiti Tun Hussien Onn Malaysia and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak apart from Merlimau Polytechnics.

A total of 60 research and academic papers by public institutions would be tabled at the two-day conference which was also attended by polytechnic’s director Zolkarnain Jobshi.

Abu Bakar said the rate of product commercialisation in the country at only eight to nine per cent was rather slow and the ministry would have to step up efforts to achieve a rate of 15 per cent.

“Even though the success of a country heavily depends on technological development, we should not blindly create various new technologies which could lead to the neglect of the environment and repercussions affecting the future generations,” he said. — Bernama