New roadmap for bioeconomy in the era of Covid-19

DUE to the current global pandemic, the upcoming third World Bioeconomy Forum (WCBEF) will be held virtually on Sept 10, live from Ruka in Finland.

Bioeconomy encompasses diverse aspects, including research and development (R&D) of bioproducts, finance, and policy making. This is reflected by the stakeholders from various backgrounds such as researchers, investors, government agency, and regulators.

In conjunction with WCBEF, it is timely to revisit the achievements of Malaysia in bioeconomy for the past 15 years since the introduction of National Biotechnology Policy (NBP) that ends this year.

NBP was launched on April 28, 2005 with the theme “Biotechnology for wealth creation and social well-being” to advance the development of agriculture, healthcare and industrial manufacturing. This constitutes the first national bioeconomy initiative in Asean and second in Asia after China.

There are nine thrusts in NBP which aim to nurture an enabling ecosystem of academic, scientific and business communities for stimulating the three bio-based sectors. These cover R&D, human capital development (BioAcademy), financial infrastructure, legal and regulatory framework, and strategic development with government support and commitment.

The implementation of NBP over the three phases of capacity building (2005-2010), science to business (2011-2015), and global business (2016-2020) is led by the Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation (BiotechCorp), currently known as the Bioeconomy Development Corporation.

Bioeconomy transformation project (BTP) encourages more agbiotech, bioindustrial, and biomedical industry while community development programme (BCDP) promotes contract farming and biotechnology application to idle lands to increase the income of farmers and value added for the agro-industry.

NBP has resulted in the establishment of many international and local biotechnology companies with the BioNexus status to enjoy fiscal incentives and other privileges. Majority of these companies are situated in the Klang Valley.

The Covid-19 situation has impacted the world economy for sustainable development and emphasised further the importance of bioeconomy.

The bioeconomy community plays an important role in addressing the current pandemic and climate emergency as well as shaping the future economy with increasing global demand in biobased products.

This poses as a prospect of bioeconomy advancement for postpandemic economic recovery, particularly in rural areas. For example, converting the abundant biomass from agri-wastes into useful materials or renewable energy for decarbonisation provides an untapped potential for farmers.

This is also in line with circular economy for eliminating waste and pollution. Hence, subsistence farmers need to be empowered with access to such green technology or biorefinery supply chain.

On the other hand, Malaysia comprises a strategic study cohort for personalised therapy due to our populational diversity in representing half of the world’s population. To realise this potential, more government support and funding are required for adopting precision medicine through genomic tools for molecular diagnostics.

This is aligned with the fourth industrial revolution (IR 4.0) of digitalisation, which has now shifted towards IR 5.0 with cooperation between man and machine through personalisation.

The same is applicable to precision agriculture with Internet of Things for real-time monitoring of farms to reduce footprint of greenhouse gases and integrate genomic-assisted plant breeding for accelerated crop improvement.

Currently, there is a surplus of graduates for available jobs. New stimulus plans are needed for sustainably expanding the bioindustry to provide ample job opportunity for qualified graduates.

With the advent of data-intensive research, the initiative of implementing open science policy for inclusive research collaboration will benefit the bioindustry to achieve the sustainable development goals together.

This is especially apparent during the Covid-19 crisis. The full genome of SARS-CoV-2 was published within a month of the first patient admission in Wuhan, which allowed researchers from around the world to start developing biotherapeutics and vaccines.

Unfortunately, there is a missed opportunity for competent Malaysian researchers in this respect due to the limited research infrastructure for advanced clinical studies.

As a host country for Apec this year, Malaysia has taken the initiative to lead the effort in drafting the Policy Partnership on Science, Technology and Innovation (PPSTI) Statement on Open Science.

We have been benchmarking our achievements against Thailand, Singapore and South Korea. It is high time to leverage on collaborations with other Apec member economies to map out action plan and construct roadmap for a brighter future of bioeconomy in Malaysia beyond 2020.