Accelerating the Growth of Bioeconomy in Malaysia

Abstract

Advances in commercial application of biotechnology worldwide over the past two decades have led to the development of a bioeconomy, whereby substantial economic outputs are from the development and use of biological materials. Bioeconomy encompasses all industries and economic sectors based on the values implicit in biological materials that can be translated into new sources of income, environmental sustainability and social well-being.

Malaysia, one of the most competitive biotechnology hubs in the Asia-Pacific region, has also taken critical early steps to coordinate and intensify national efforts to harness the potential of the bioeconomy. Most significantly, the Bioeconomy Transformation Programme (BTP) was launched in October 2012, making the country only the second in Asia, after China, and the first in ASEAN, to establish its own national bioeconomy initiative.

The BTP is in line with the Government’s objective to develop Malaysia into a high-income nation by the year 2020. The BTP aims to achieve this by focusing on bio-based industries in Malaysia, a sector that has been identified as having enormous potential to further develop the nation due to the abundance of natural resources available.

With the introduction of the BTP, Malaysia is now unlocking even greater opportunities in the local and regional biotechnology industry, and enhancing the participation of the private sector. Through effective execution strategies from the Government and BiotechCorp, the biotechnology sector is now directly contributing towards efforts to drive Malaysia towards a high-income and knowledge-based economy by year 2020.