SME entrepreneurs need to collaborate with universities — MTDC
KOTA KINABALU: Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) encourages small and medium enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs to collaborate with local universities and research institutions to adopt and develop technologies in their business.
Its chief executive officer, Datuk Norhalim Yunus said this was crucial in order to enhance the potential of SME entrepreneurs in churning out products not only for the domestic market but also the global market.
He said they needed to embrace technological and innovative elements in their business to keep pace with the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0).
“SME entrepreneurs are encouraged to use research and development ( R& D) on various industries produced by local universities and research institutions.
“Maybe some of these R& D remain untapped. So, SME entrepreneurs can can capitalise on these R&D to inject technologies and innovations into their business to reduce dependence on technologies and innovations from overseas,” he told reporters after launching the MTDC Road2Growth yesterday.
He said MTDC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Bhd and an agency under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, is poised to be a platform to empower collaboration between SME entrepreneurs and universities to enable research from laboratories be commercialised.
“We can help match SME entrepreneurs with the right expertise and universities, but they need to identify what technology is appropriate for their companies that can be used strategically to optimise results in order to compete in the market,” he said.
On the programme, Norhalim said the one-day roadshow, which was attended by 150 entrepreneurs from Sabah, was a platform for MTDC to raise their awareness on its services to help them become techno-entrepreneurs.
The next programme will be held in Kuching on Thursday. — Bernama