RESEARCH and development (R&D) is a key determinant of a country's economic development, yet not much money is headed that way.
According to media reports, over the last three years, the government has provided RM1.2 billion in R&D funds, with the hope that it would help Malaysia join the developed nations league.
Malaysia, which is ranked as the 37th economy in the world by the World Bank, has big ambitions. If pronouncements by Putrajaya are any guide, Malaysia wants its economy to be No. number 30 in the world. Seven rungs up the ladder may appear easy. After all, it is just a rung-and-half move up per year.
Not so quick. There are at least three issues with the state of R&D in Malaysia.
Firstly, the size of funds dedicated to R&D.
Secondly, whatever the size of funding, it must produce results that are worth the amount spent. This isn't the case.
Thirdly, the public sector and the private sector appear to be working in silos, leading to low commercialisation of R&D ideas generated by public academic institutions. This is a cause for concern.
Begin with R&D funding. To be sure, Malaysia doesn't have a deep pocket. What is worse, it is deep in debt, estimated to be about RM1.5 trillion. Most of it is due to leakages.
But that is the fate of Malaysia for now, paying tens of billions just in interest payments towards the debt.
Be that as it may, happily Malaysia has a 12th Malaysia Plan goal of spending hitting 2.5 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) by next year.
Today, Malaysia spends just over one per cent of the GDP. Too close a target year for comfort? Sure appears so.
Secondly, Malaysia's R&D expenditure is producing far less innovation than it should.
Detractors have a favourite example: Finland. True only for 2019, in which year the Nordic country spent a third of what Malaysia spent, but produced a heap of innovative products. Today, Finland spends more — 2.9 per cent of the GDP — but the point remains: there is a correlation between talent and innovation.
Media figures show that 40 per cent of Finland's workforce have a strong foundation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Not that Malaysia doesn't have graduates in the four fields. It does, but not in numbers as high as Finland.
Even in the lower numbers, many remain unemployed or underemployed.
Employers just don't want to hire them, citing poor fluency as the main reason. The employers are not only doing themselves a disfavour, but also setting back the country's development goals.
The universities — public and private — are no help.
We have no issue with the number of STEM graduates being churned out, but it is not the right churn.
The industry and the universities will do well by collaborating rather than shouting from different premises.
Finally, universities and the industry need to work together to increase the rate of commercialisation of R&D ideas.
Academics must know that hatching an idea is just the first step. Innovation doesn't happen until ideas get commercialised.
Over 34 years since 1986, only 21,518 patents have been registered. A dismal record. Working in silos is a critical cause of this.