Industries Must Promote Research Products, Says Deputy Minister

KANGAR (Perlis, Malaysia), April 30 (Bernama) -- Industries must assist research entities within institutions of higher learning and full boarding schools to promote their products, said Malaysian International Trade and Industry deputy minister Mukhriz Tun Mahathir. "I feel that industries must cooperate with these institutions and schools in order to encourage the development of talent to generate innovative research. "At the same time, we encourage the research institutions to obtain as much market information as possible from the industries to assist in marketing their products," he told reporters after the closing of the 2012 International Engineering Invention and Innovation Exhibition organised by Universiti Malaysia Perlis here, Sunday evening. Mukhriz remarked that such collaborations between both parties were important to not only produce intellectual properties but also be a source of income for the companies and country and help it achieve developed status by 2020. He elaborated that sometimes the research institutions carried out research without taking into consideration or having in depth knowledge of market needs and therefore feedback from the industries could help target these needs. He noted that Malaysian students have come up with quite a number of innovative products and won various awards locally and abroad but the industries have not taken advantage of the situation. The three-day programme exhibited 335 products from 18 universities and 82 schools throughout the country and also from Cambodia, Canada, Germany, Egypt, UAE, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan, Iraq and the Philippines. The programme was held simultaneously with the 14th Malaysian International Young Inventers Olympiad. --BERNAMA