The Star,
Friday April 4, 2008
Ongkili: Biotech plan on track
KUALA LUMPUR: The first phase of the Biotech Master
Plan (2005-2020) is on track, according to Science
Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Maximus
Ongkili. He said that currently there were 56
BioNexus-status companies, and about 70 more
companies were being targeted to achieve the status
by year-end.
“The total investment to date is RM1bil from the 56
companies and we are targeting RM20bil by 2010.
“There is now a network of 15 universities and 11
research institutes throughout Malaysia linked to
BioNexus and biotech companies,” he told reporters
after his first working visit to Malaysian
Biotechnology Corp Sdn Bhd (BiotechCorp) near here
yesterday.
Dr Ongkili said they were targeting 40,000 knowledge
workers by 2010, which at the moment stood at
slightly over 1,000. He said one key sector that
they were looking at was the development of bio-fuel
from non-food sources.
“I will fine-tune the plans with Plantation
Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin
Fah Kui,” he said, adding that he hoped to meet Chin
in the next few weeks.
BiotechCorp chief executive officer Datuk Iskandar
Mizal Mahmood said 75% of the 206 recruits in the
2007 training programme had obtained placements in
biotechnology-related companies and agencies for
industrial training. He said that 25% of them had
already been employed by these companies.
Iskandar said BiotechCorp, which was established in
2005 under the National Biotechnology Policy, was
confident it would be able to achieve the goals of
the Biotech Master Plan after acquiring an exclusive
worldwide licence to a nanotechnology platform from
France last year. |
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