The Cabinet earlier today has greenlit the plan by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MOSTI) to combine Technology Park Malaysia (TPM) and the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) into a single agency. According to Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, the new agency will be focusing on accelerating innovation and technology commercialisation.
While the new agency has yet to be given a name by MOSTI, it will be led by the CEO of TPM, Dzuleira Abu Bakar who herself has just been transferred from MaGIC last week. She was originally appointed as the CEO of MaGIC back in 2019 and prior to that, she was leading the Cradle Seed Venture for two and half years.
Established back in 1996, TPM acts as an incubator service provider that covers physical location and infrastructure for local and multinational companies. Among industries that have been utilising TPM includes ICT, engineering, biotech, telecommunications, contents, and support services.
On another hand, MaGIC is a much younger agency that was founded in 2014. It has a different focus as well since the agency’s mandate is more towards cultivating local start-ups, social enterprises, and entrepreneurs.
The announcement by Minister Khairy today also pointed out that the consolidation of TPM and MaGIC will bring the best of both agencies under one roof. MOSTI also believes that the new agency will be in a better position to help increase commercialisation rates and R&D spend as well as reducing the overlapping of roles between government agencies.
That being said, the announcement didn’t provide the exact timeline on when the consolidation of TPM and MaGIC is expected to be completed.
(Source: Khairy Jamaluddin / Twitter. Images: TPM, NTIS / Facebook, MaGIC / Facebook.)
