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Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.

A graphic outlining challenges facing innovation policymakers in Malaysia: cross-sector collaboration, unclear responsibilities, access to funding, regional inequalities

Encouraging cross-sector collaboration

Efforts to align science, technology and innovation players from the public and private sector have been relatively uncoordinated; this then limits the impact of policies and strategies.

There appears to be an element of competitiveness among the various agencies around who should take the lead to align and oversee science, technology and innovation initiatives; there is not enough involvement from the private sector in innovation.

Unclear responsibilities

There is uncertainty around boundaries and roles across the various ministries and government agencies; many have overlapping responsibilities, resulting in duplication of effort, and sometimes oversight on certain issues.

Availability does not always equal access

While a significant amount of funding is available, access to funding proves challenging, especially for SMEs.

The number of agencies involved creates overlap and competition in disbursing funding – 15 ministries and 55 agencies have funds for research, development, commercialisation and innovation.

Funding opportunities for commercialisation are not equally distributed between urban and rural areas. In 2013, while the volume of capital had increased, the number of deals had not.

Finally, most available funds are geared toward early-stage investment and there is a gap in Series A to C funding:

  • A (to further optimise the user base and product offerings)
  • B (to grow the company, expand the market, and talent acquisition)
  • C (to develop new products, expand into new markets, or even acquire other companies).

Impressive work on digital infrastructure, but regional inequalities

Extensive attention has been devoted to developing a connected population; this has resulted in 77.9 per cent household broadband penetration, with 28 million mobile broadband subscriptions.

However, there is a discrepancy in distribution of broadband or internet access, with poorer penetration (hovering around 50-60 per cent) on the east coast of the Malaysian peninsula and East Malaysia.

Authors

Benjamin Reid

Benjamin Reid

Benjamin Reid

Head of International Innovation - Development Programmes

Benjamin was head of the International Innovation team within Nesta's Policy and Research division.

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Silvia Pau

Silvia Pau

Silvia Pau

Assistant Programme Manager, A Fairer Start mission

Silvia is an Assistant Programme Manager.

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Florence Engasser

Florence Engasser

Florence Engasser

Senior Foresight Analyst

Florence was a senior foresight analyst within Nesta’s Discovery Hub, which aims to create a link between Nesta’s current portfolio and our pipeline of future work.

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Paulina Gonzalez-Ortega

Paulina Gonzalez-Ortega

Paulina Gonzalez-Ortega

Design Lead, International Innovation

Paulina was the Design Lead for the Global Innovation Policy Accelerator, a 14-country collaborative development programme for senior innovation policymakers.

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Anna Schlimm

Anna Schlimm

Anna Schlimm

Learning Experience Designer, Global Innovation Policy Accelerator

Anna was a Learning Experience Designer for the Global Innovation Policy Accelerator.

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Nathan Kably

Nathan Kably

Nathan Kably

Senior Strategy Analyst

Nathan worked on the design and delivery of Nesta's strategy

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