Danabalan, Secretary General of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (MOSTE) and Dr. Islahuddin Baba, Deputy Secretary General 1 of MOSTE for their support and advice on the study. It is hoped that this research will contribute to the development of national S&T indicators. In the context of science and technology policy formulation, an assessment of the overall R&D situation in the country is necessary.
Data on R&D and innovation – status, development and composition – is crucial for decision-makers at all levels. The principle of transparency enables another important aspect of scientific research, i.e. the availability of research results for evaluation by the international scientific community. The R&D classification system was first introduced in the "1992 National Survey of R&D".
This was an attempt to analyze the R&D resources and activities in terms of the fields of research (FOR) and the socio-economic objective (SEO) classifications. Due to mixed responses and feedback received from various parties and to suit the Malaysian environment, the original version of the classification system was revised and used in the 1994 survey.
The Coverage and Response Rate of the Survey
Among those who responded to the survey, there was not much change in the number of organizations performing R&D activities. In the case of Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs), only one in ten NPOs perform R&D and therefore, they were not considered for further analysis.
OVERVIEW OF NATIONAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
- Profile of National R&D Activities
- R&D Spending by Sector
- R&D Spending by Type of Cost
- R&D Spending by Type of Research
- Manpower for R&D
- The Factors Limiting R&D Activities
- International Comparisons .1 The GERD/GDP Ratio
- The Manpower for R&D
- Type of Research by Sectors
In this case, research, technical and consultancy services for PETRONAS alone contributed 95.6% of the total expenditure of RM119.3 million. to the industries. However, further investigations showed that in 1994, purchases of machinery and equipment in the energy industry accounted for RM120.1 million (out of RM125.5 million), i.e. almost 80% of the total expenses. A total of 9,233 R&D personnel (Headcount) were engaged in R&D activities in 1996, representing a 19.5% reduction in the number of research personnel compared to 1994.
This is attributed to the decline in FTE levels in two of the sectors with the highest decline in GRI (38.6%) and Private (8.1%) while DNH recorded a slight increase of 3.2%. The private sector continues to provide the majority of Malaysia's total R&D effort. In 1996, only 0.4% of the RM400.1 million expenditure was contracted to universities and government research institutes [see Table 4.1].
In the United States, private sector support for IHRs grew rapidly, that is, from 4% to 7% of total expenditures during the period from 1980 to 1995. While the United States and Japan accounted for the majority (59 .4% and 58.1%, respectively) of the R&D expenditure on experimental development, Malaysia and Singapore focused more on applied research [see Fig.
GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND RESEARCH INSTITUTS
- Expenditures on R&D
- Manpower for R&D
- R&D (FOR) Priorities
- Socio-Economic Objectives (SEO) of R&D
- R&D Labour Cost
- R&D Outsourcing
- Factors limiting R&D Activities
The most prominent agency outside the primary sector which spent less than half of the reported expenditure in 1994 was MIMOS. Given the extremely high cost of research in the field of microelectronics, the amount was actually very small. About 49% of R&D funding came from the agencies themselves, a large portion of which was actually the cost of R&D labor [see Fig.
For example, the ratio of support staff to researchers was 1.6:1, as in the case of MARDI, but only 1:12 in the case of MIMOS. What is more interesting to note is that only 4.6% of GRI research focus was in the area of information, computer and communications technologies, despite the government's statements about the importance of the sector. Recent government efforts to improve this field of research have not led to a significant increase in the number of researchers in this field over the past two years.
Overall, 'delay in decision making' was considered the main factor limiting R&D activities internally in the GRIs. The external factors identified as limiting R&D activities in the GRIs are ranked as follows:
PRIVATE SECTOR R&D ACTIVITIES
- Companies with R&D activities
- Expenditures on R&D
- R&D Expenditure by Size of Company
- R&D Expenditure by Type of Ownership/Control
- R&D Expenditure by Field of Research (FOR)
- R&D Expenditure by Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
- R&D Expenditure per Research Personnel
- Human Resource by Industry
- Human Resource by Field of Research (FOR)
- Human Resource by Socio-Economic Objectives (SEO)
- Qualifications and Gender of Researchers
- Sources of Funding and R&D Linkages
- Factors Limiting R&D Activities
- R&D Activities by Geographical Location
The majority was for research, technical and consultancy services for PETRONAS, which contributed almost 96% (RM113.8 million) of the total expenditure (RM118.6 million) in these industries [see Fig. The majority (about 28% of total expenditure excluding External Expenditure which is equivalent to RM113.3 million) of the costs went to operating costs. In terms of employment size, most companies that spent on R&D activities were medium-sized companies employing 75-200 workers [see Table 6.2].
They constituted 24% of the total number of companies and their expenses accounted for about 14% of total expenses (including external funds). Companies employing between (201-500) workers and more than 2000 workers contributed 30% and 20% of total expenditure respectively. Sixty-six companies or about 42% of the total number of companies performing R&D activities in 1996 were locally owned.
Together with those companies that were controlled at the local level, they accounted for nearly 67% of the total number of companies. The United States, Japan and the United Kingdom of foreign-owned/controlled companies conducting R&D activities in Malaysia in 1996 contributed the same percentages of 14% of the total number of foreign-owned/controlled companies ( 7 companies each) [see Table 6.8 ]. The majority of foreign-owned/controlled companies were in the electronics industry (10 companies) while the majority of domestic-owned/controlled companies were in the chemical products (12 companies) and food industries (10 companies) [see Table 6.7 ].
The manufacturing sector dominated Malaysian R&D expenditure (RM227.4 million), accounting for approx. 57% of total expenses. An almost similar pattern for the distribution of FTE among R&D personnel can be seen in the figure. Foreign nationals made up only 2.4% of the total research workforce (FTE) in the country, and they were mainly in electronics industries.
It is interesting to note that about 14.6% of the focused private sectors were in information, computing and communication technology. About 20% of researchers in Malaysia were women, and they were concentrated in service industries such as transport, retail and finance, followed by electronic equipment and components and telecommunications services [see Table 6.15]. It is interesting to note that about 23% (combined) of the total respondents were not aware of the R&D incentives plus they did not know how to apply for them.
INSTITUTES OF HIGHER LEARNING (IHL) R&D ACTIVITIES
- Structure of Sector
- R&D Expenditure by Institutes of Higher Learning
- Intensity of R&D in Institutes of Higher Learning
- Priorities in R&D by Fields of Research (FOR)
- Socio-Economic Objectives (SEO) of R&D
- R&D Labour Cost
- R&D Outsourcing
- Factors Limiting R&D Activities in Institutes of Higher Learning
Around 50% of the R&D fund for IHL came from IRPA, while 45% of the funds came from the institutions' own fund as shown in the figure. There appeared to be some improvement in the number of research staff involved compared to a total of 1,417 researchers in 1994. In terms of research staff, USM recorded the highest number with 291 researchers and 120 support staff.
As a proportion of the country's total research effort, higher education researcher effort (RE) represents 11.7%, down from 17% in 1994 [see Fig. Science and Technology, Materials Science and Engineering Science. UM, on the other hand, had the largest number of researchers in the field of Chemical Sciences.
One important measure of R&D intensity is the amount spent on research. On the other hand, UTM spent nearly 36% on applied science and technology, while 34% of USM's expenditure went to medical and health sciences. However, the ranking by research effort (FTE) as shown in Table 7.4 is USM, UTM and UM.
Regarding DNH's Research and Development expenditures, 15% was spent in the field of medicine and health science. This is slightly less than the amount spent on biological sciences, which accounts for about 20% of total DNH expenditure. In terms of socio-economic objectives, 27% of expenditure went to research on manufacturing with the majority focused on research on processed food products and beverages [see Fig.
The next most important socio-economic objective was health, which accounted for approximately 15% of expenditure followed by Natural Sciences, Technology and Engineering (8%). Further evidence revealed that the total amount contracted by UKM was RM69,700 in the field of Medical and Health Sciences [see table 7.1]. Overall, the researchers in this survey considered that 'delays in decision-making' was the main internal factor that limited their R&D activities in DNH.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
What has changed since 1994 with regard to R&D activities in Malaysia?
Recommendations for Improvements of R&D activities in Malaysia
There is a need to focus on R&D differentiation in every sector, which can lead to optimized financial and human resources. This could be possible with a higher level of collaboration between researchers from different sectors and also with greater accessibility of information on R&D activities. Physical infrastructure for (academic) research and development in IHL – Creative and innovative ideas can remain unexplored if the physical infrastructure needed to realize them is not available.
A thorough examination of the need to collect information on the following aspects, both at the aggregate level and at the science level; Academic Linkage with Industry: One of the main factors limiting R&D activities in the private sector is the lack of R&D personnel. One way to overcome this problem is to attract R&D personnel from outside the private sector.
There is a need for a mechanism that promotes such linkage between the private sector and academia. Incentives for the GRIs and the IHLs: The slow growth in R&D performance in both the GRIs and the IHLs needs to be appropriately addressed. Of the many factors cited as limiting R&D activities, the lack of incentives for individual researchers in the public sector may play a role in contributing to the decline in R&D activities.
For example, in the absence of clear incentives, many individual researchers in IHRs will look for others. There is a need for effective mechanisms that take into account incentives for researchers conducting R&D in the public sector.
