22 early stage smart government solutions unlocked through NTIS
KUCHING: From urban farming and cooking oil subsidy applications to drone-powered maritime surveillance solutions and traffic management systems, 22 early stage innovative government projects were recently sparked off, aimed at public and industry benefit.
Through the National Technology and Innovation Sandbox (NTIS), startups and technology companies will have the opportunity to be given access to funding, technology and regulatory support in order to mature these early stage government solutions and bring them out to market.
Qualified innovations will be given funding, technology and regulatory support towards bringing them out to market.
This includes funding for companies in the NTIS programme, made through the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC), ranging between RM250,000 to RM5 million, depending on the requirements and Sandbox category.
According to the EGovernment Development Index (EGDI) 2020 by the United Nations (UN), Malaysia’s persistent efforts and innovative initiatives have enabled the country to climb the rankings into the Top 50 in the past two years, joining the very high EGDI group for the first time in 2020.
The Index provides a snapshot of country trends and relative rankings of egovernment development in the implementation of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
“As such, the NTIS is designed to fast-track ideas to impact. Through this, we want to create solutions to enhance the rakyat’s quality of life and income, create new high-skilled jobs, attract the best local talent, provide opportunities and foster shared prosperity, while reducing dependency on foreign labour.
“An innovation-driven government will shape an active, resilient and competitive society,” the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) acting chief executive officer (CEO) Amiruddin Abdul Shukor said. MaGIC serves as the lead agency in the NTIS Secretariat.
“Local technology development is an imperative for the country, we need to slowly move from being just tech users to also be strong technology producers,” Technology Park Malaysia (TPM) CEO Dzuleira
Abu Bakar said.
TPM is an NTIS secretariat and technology audit partner.
“Importing technology for domestic consumption is not sustainable from an economic or talent development perspective – which is why we are fostering more locally-developed solutions through the NTIS.”
Last year, the government directed RM100 million through Penjana towards the NTIS initiative, laying the groundwork for Malaysian-bred technologies to be recognised, supported, funded and brought to market in an expedient way.
“NTIS is a critical platform to accelerate efforts to connect with more government agencies to unearth a variety of use cases leading towards stronger commercialisation activities and success stories for the country.
“By unpacking a spread of challenges, we enable more exploration, development and testing – which fosters the enculturation of innovation,” Dzuleira added.
“Government chief information officers, CIOs, are key players in realising this aim as they have the capability to deploy technologies that can address many of these issues requiring a multisectoral approach.”
As such, between May and August, the NTIS engaged all 26 Malaysian Government Ministries in a 12-week Innovation Masterclass, to design and develop products or solutions which could enable Malaysia to tackle issues exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.