KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 5): The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) has approved 184 research and development (R&D) projects as of March this year, involving a total investment of RM2.97 billion.

Up to 60 per cent of the approved projects worth RM1.60 billion were derived from foreign companies while the rest by locals.

Its chief executive officer Datuk Azman Mahmud said the projects comprised 77 contact R&D, 58 in-house R&D, 30 approved R&D companies and 19 R&D status companies.

“These are mainly in industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, healthcare, machinery, automotive, as well as electrical and electronics,” he said in his speech when opening the Innovation Pitch And Business Matching (IPBM) 2019 here, today.

The approved projects according to him had created over 6,500 high-quality job opportunities, mainly in the science and technicals fields.

To date, MIDA has awarded six university-linked companies R&D status, which enables their clients to enjoy double-deduction on R&D expenditure, said Azman.

“It is a tax-efficient way to invest in R&D, whereby industry partners can access university expertise while allowing academia to produce more research with higher commercial potential.” 

He said MIDA expects the business spending on R&D activities for this year to be about RM30 million.

Speaking to the media later, Azman stressed that Malaysia has always been open to investments from all over the world that fits with the country’s economic agenda.

“Malaysia’s strategic location is our advantage. If investors wanted to invest in sectors that we are promoting, including R&D, we welcome that,” he said, when asked if the ongoing trade war between the US and China, would encourage more foreign companies to set up or relocate their R&D centres from China to Malaysia.

Today’s event was organised by MIDA in collaboration with University Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) and Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC).

Attended by over 250 participants, IPBM 2019 which was themed “Innovation for the Future of Malaysia” served as a platform for technologists, scientists and researchers from universities to promote their inventions, innovations and research outputs to potential investors and industry players.