Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, YB Datuk Hajah Zuraida Kamaruddin launched the Malaysian Rubber Council’s Global Funding for Rubber Innovation (GFRI). Themed “Nurturing Ideas for Rubber Industry.
Globally”, the event took place at the Le Meridien Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, today. The GFRI is an effort to create a complete eco-system to support the development of the rubber and rubber products industry in pertinent areas, such as research and development.
“MRC’s GFRI aimed to encourage the generation of ideas, innovations, and inventions for rubber products and technologies with good commercial viability to attract investment by the Malaysian rubber industry. Malaysian rubber products are currently exported to 189 countries worldwide. Exports have increased by 50.6% from RM40.1 billion in 2020 to RM61.7 billion in 2021.” Zuraidah said.
“I believe that the importance of continuous reform and modernisation efforts in the manufacturing and innovative products are crucial to support the country’s economic growth. This is to ensure the rubber industry remains competitive in the global market,” she added.
Industry, universities, and research institutions are the centres of the best minds in the country with a pool of experts from various fields. As such, researchers from respective organisations play a crucial role in generating innovation that can contribute to economic prosperity. In this regard, Malaysia can draw from the successful technical experts in developed countries such as the United States of America, European countries, and Japan which can spur rapid technological development.
“MRC’s Global Funding for Rubber Innovation will serve as an ideal platform to seed innovative inter-disciplinary non-fundamental research with the potential to promote investments in high-value products and technologies within the rubber and rubber products industry. It also provides a platform to find solutions to critical problems faced by the rubber industry, from upstream to downstream sectors.” Daroyah said.
MRC’s Global Funding for Rubber Innovation will kick off with an initial fund of RM10 million, which will be awarded as a full research fund. The research grant is open to all local and overseas researchers from public and private research institutions, universities, other institutes of higher learning and companies based in Malaysia and overseas. A Special Committee consisting of industry and technical experts from the public and the private sector has been set up to conduct technical and financial evaluations on proposals that conform to the requirements of the funding programme.
YB Datuk Hajah Zuraida Kamaruddin congratulated MRC on the establishment of the Global Funding for Rubber Innovation and is confident that the Fund will promote investments in high-value products and technologies within the rubber and rubber products industry.
