NAJIB LAUNCHES FIRST SOCIAL IMPACT EXCHANGE TO PROMOTE INNOVATION
Platform aims to channel resources to high-performing social-purpose bodies
MALAYSIA yesterday launched its first Social Impact Exchange, or SIX, a platform that aims to strengthen innovation culture in the country.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said SIX was designed like a traditional stock exchange to channel untapped resources to high-performing social-purpose organisations (SPOs).
Jointly implemented by Agensi Inovasi Malaysia and Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC), under the National Blue Ocean Strategy’s (NBOS) ambit, Najib said, the exchange would be the focal point for funding SPOs and their intervention projects.
He said this would bring more corporate players into the fold.
Speaking at the launch of the Global Entrepreneurship Community Summit 2017, Najib said he was optimistic about the future and the central role knowledge, science and entrepreneurship played in it.
He said he did not accept the notion that innovation was only for start-ups and the private sector, stating that innovation must be implemented for everyone and by everyone.
Malaysia, he said, had been pursuing innovation in the public sector with NBOS, which has transformed the way the government worked and had made significant contribution to the national development.
“We must be prepared for the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which will bring a range of new disruptive technologies; impacting all disciplines, economies and industries.
“We cannot afford to stand on the sidelines. We must get into the game.”
Welcoming more than 5,000 participants from 89 countries, he dubbed GEC Summit’s second edition this year as the “gamechanger.”
Najib said NBOS had been a key pillar in the country’s national transformation.
He said it had followed the Blue Ocean Shift process to tackle a wide range of economic and social issues, and deliver high-impact initiatives for the benefit of the people and at low cost to the government.
Najib announced that more than 90 government ministries and agencies were collaborating to break down bureaucratic silos, and develop creative and innovative initiatives to transform the nation since it was implemented eight years ago.
NBOS, he said, would continue to play a key role especially in executing Transformasi Nasional 2050 (TN50).
“We need to keep that momentum of innovation because I believe we are at the tipping point of a new phase in the digital revolution.”
Najib quoted Steve Case, one of the pioneers of the Internet, who said there were three major waves in digital technologies and that the world was transitioning into the Third Wave.
“This is when digital technologies and the Internet leave traditional infrastructure and move into highly regulated sectors of health, energy, transport and finance. This is the world of the Internet of things and big data. If Steve Case is right, then the public sector will need to become far more innovative — for this stage, private-sector innovations will be more dependent on public-sector innovations.”
Najib said Futurise Centre, which acts as a platform to stimulate and accelerate innovation, capacity-building and the commercialisation of products and inventions, had been included in the 2018 Budget. It was one of the initiatives to prepare Malaysia for the future.
He announced that the centre would house the first United Nations Technology Innovation Lab in Southeast Asia and the region’s first entrepreneurship Internet radio, eFM, which would be driven by the Global Entrepreneurship Movement.
He said this centre, led by Cyberview with MaGIC as its strategic partner, would bring government, corporations, academia and entrepreneurs together, to address issues of future technologies like smart-city development, robotics and artificial intelligence.
He said it would also be the test bed and living lab for the development of national regulatory sandboxes, allowing for policy extermination and testing of innovative ideas and business models.
He said Smart Cities, Agrotech, Digital Health, Clean Energy and Mobility would be the regulatory sandboxes’ main focus in the first quarter of next year.
Najib handed out the inaugural Global Blue Ocean Shift Awards to recognise outstanding achievements across the public, private and social sectors around the world.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Minister of Special Functions and Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa accepted the awards for Malaysia’s initiatives.
Present were Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, Treasury secretary-general and the summit’s chairman Tan Sri Dr Irwan Serigar and MaGIC chief executive officer Ashran Ghazi.