Bernama,
May 26, 2008
More Companies Keen To
Get BioNexus Status
KUALA LUMPUR, May 26 (Bernama) -- About 100
companies are in the pipeline to obtain the BioNexus
status, which will make them eligible for privileges
contained in the BioNexus Bill of Guarantees,
BiotechCorp's chief executive officer Datuk Iskandar
Mizal Mahmood said Monday.
"We are targeting at least 70 companies to have the
BioNexus status by end of 2008 but there are a
number of companies in the evaluating committee's
pipeline," he said after the launching of The
Biotech Review 2005-2007 here.
To date, there are 56 companies with BioNexus
status, out of which 14 have partial foreign funding
and four are wholly owned by foreigners.
BioNexus' Bill of Guarantees allows, among others,
freedom of ownership, freedom to source funds
globally, freedom to bring in knowledge workers and
eligibility for competitive incentives and other
assistance.
Of the 56 companies, 15 are involved in the
agriculture sector.
On another development, Iskandar said Biotech had
utilised up to 40 percent of the RM300 million
allocated for it under the Ninth Malaysia Plan
(9MP).
Under the 9MP, the government has allocated RM2
billion to complement the private sector funding for
promoting biotechnology. Biotech's RM300 million is
part of the government's allocation.
Iskandar also said that the market capitalisation of
biotech and life science companies listed on Bursa
Malaysia rose to RM2.502 billion as at end-2007 from
RM2.1 billion in 2006 and RM1.809 billion in 2005. |
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