Mida’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer Datuk Phang Ah Tong said in many countries, particularly developing nations, a mismatch between the industry and universities existed in terms of relevancy to graduates produced as well as research undertaken.
He said the “irrelevant graduates and research” was a waste, as well as a duplication of resources, with Malaysia not excluded from the problem.
Mida, as such, is exploring the possibility of working together with the SRC to enhance and strengthen collaboration between universities and industries in Malaysia, he told reporters at an interview session with the SRC here today.
The SRC is the world’s leading technology research company. It was established in 1982 as a consortium of semi-conductor companies banding together to manage high priority university research as identified by industry and government.
“Malaysia’s efforts towards this collaboration started with the Collaborative Research in Engineering in Engineering Science and Technology (CREST) in the Northern and funded 50:50 by government and industry.
“But, this is on a smaller scale when compared to the SRC,” Phang said.
Globally the semi-conductor industry generated revenue of US$ 305 billion in 2013 and is expected to exceed US$ 400 billion in 2017.
Phang said the rapid development and innovations taking place reflect a very high commitment among industries to research and development (R&D).
“Spending on semi-conductor R&D is expected to remain around 16 to 17 per cent of revenue in the coming years,” he added.
Meanwhile, SRC’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Larry W.Sumney said after a week of fruitful meetings with industries in Malaysia, he found that the country had an advantage of being relationship based.
This is because there are a number of multinational companies here which were already SRC members, like INTEL, Freescale and AMD.
Moving forward, he said SRC would be organising a forum here by the middle of next year to gather industries and universities from overseas, as well as locally.
“This is before drawing up the specific research programme required, and expected by the end of 2015,” he added.
— BERNAMA
