The Malaysian Government has put in place various incentives and grants towards encouraging companies in wide spectrum of industries to embark on R&D activities. Such industries include electrical and electronics, machinery and equipment, chemical, medical and aerospace. MIDA, as the principal investment promotion agency of the country, has approved a total of 7 R&D projects with investments worth RM266 million in 2016. These investments are expected to generate 687 high income jobs for Malaysians.
The country’s progress can be best seen in how it scored under the Pillar 12: Innovation of The Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017. In the said report, Malaysia has moved up three notches from 25th place out of 148 countries in 2013-2014 to 22nd place in 2016-2017. The report also showed that the nation has improved in each of the criteria measured with a score of 4.7 out of 7 points.
| Criteria | 2013-2014 | 2016-2017 | ||
| Rank | Score | Rank | Score | |
| Pillar 12 : Innovation | 25 | 4.4 | 22 | 4.7 |
| Capacity for Innovation | 15 | 4.9 | 13 | 5.4 |
| Quality of Scientific Research Institutions | 27 | 4.9 | 23 | 5.3 |
| Company Spending on R&D | 17 | 4.6 | 8 | 5.2 |
| University-Industry Collaboration in R&D | 16 | 5.0 | 11 | 5.2 |
| Government Procurement of Advanced Technology Products | 4 | 4.8 | 3 | 5.0 |
| Availability of Scientist and Engineers | 19 | 4.9 | 7 | 5.3 |
| Utility Patents Granted per Million Population | 31 | 12.1 | 36 | 11.3 |
The Government continues to place emphasis on R&D as
reflected in the 11th Malaysia Plan 2016-2020 (11th
MP). The plan focusses on translating innovation to wealth through
strengthening relational capital to foster stronger linkages, collaboration and
trust among stakeholders. Stronger relational capital will improve coordination
and enable the sharing and testing of ideas across multiple stakeholders and
disciplines which will improve the national innovation ecosystem. This enables
Malaysia to bring creative outputs to market and share the available resources.
This is indeed in line with the National Science, Technology and Innovation
Policy aims for Malaysia to achieve Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) of at
least 2.0 percent by 2020.