PENANG, 8 December 2015 – Malaysia is ranked sixth in the world for idea commercialisation efforts as the result of consultations, training, publications and other such efforts.

The Minister of Higher Education, Dato’ Seri Idris Jusoh announced this at the press conference after officiating the closing ceremony of the 14^th International Research and Invention of Higher Educational Institutions Expo (PECIPTA 2015) in Kuala Lumpur recently.

In its entirety, the commercialisation of ideas and also researches in Malaysia is on the rise and with the organisation of PECIPTA 2015, it is hoped that there would be an increase in the number of academicians who would be involved in such creative efforts.

“The commercialisation of research products in Malaysia yields much better returns on investment (RoI) at 5.33 percent compared to the world average of 5.0 percent,” added Idris.

“The Ministry of Higher Education (KPT) encourages the researchers to be continually active in research to develop inventions and innovations which could benefit the general society,” said Idris, who also launched the book published by the Centre for Global Sustainability Studies (CGSS), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) entitled ‘Disaster Risk Management for Sustainable Development (DRM-SD) – National Directory of Expertise’.

According to the Director-General, Higher Education Department (JPT), Dato’ Professor Dr. Asma Ismail, PECIPTA 2015 has succeeded in bringing together 495 research products which were categorised into 9 clusters including Education and Human Development, Agriculture, Aquaculture and Environment, Biotechnology and Pure Sciences, Manufacturing Technology, Information and Communications Technology and Multimedia and also Health and Wellness.

“This time around, PECIPTA 2015 had received the highest number of participation from private institutions compared to previous participations, as well as first-time entries from the polytechnics and also the community colleges throughout Malaysia,” said Asma.

For the record, USM obtained 8 gold medals and one special award, 7 silver medals and 7 bronze medals from the 24 USM research products which participated in PECIPTA 2015, held from 4-6 December 2015 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC).

PECIPTA 2015 was organised by the Ministry of Higher Education and for this year’s event, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) had been given the honour of hosting it.

Others who were present include the Secretary-General of KPT, Dato’ Seri Ir. Dr. Zaini Ujang; Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) USM, Professor Dato’ Dr. Muhamad Jantan representing the USM Vice-Chancellor; Vice-Chancellor of UPSI Professor Dato’ Dr. Zakaria Kasa and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) UPSI as the Chairperson for PECIPTA 2015, Professor Dato’ Dr. Noraini Idris.

Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin

Text: Nor Rafizah Md Zain (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Photos: Muhammad Firdaus Khiruddin