By: Luqman Nul Hakim Mazlan
Source: Bernama

The launch of the Malaysian Creativity and Innovation Year 2010 by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, scheduled for Jan 27 at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre, could not have come at a better time, said a university don.

Professor Datuk Dr Mohamed Shariff Mohamed Din, director of Universiti Putra Malaysia's (UPM) Innovation and Commercialisation Centre, it would help produce more inventors, especially among the younger generation, towards realising Malaysia's vision 2020 goal to be a developed country by that year.

"When we talk about innovation, we must think of something new... we must improve ourselves, then we can make our life simple, more effective, more efficient.

"If we do not change now, our country will be left behind in various aspsects. Look at the developed nations like Japan, Korea, United States and the European countries. They progressed because of innovation. If we are not innovative, we will be left behind," he told Bernama Thursday.

He said the country had many commodities which could yield more products through innovation, like, for example, it now exported palm oil but many more products could be made from the oil palm.

"We should not be happy with just one invention like oil...there are actually many other things that we can produce," he said.

He said it was never "too late" to start this transformation (innovation and creativity) process because the most important thing was to inculcate the innovation culture right now.

"We must start from somewhere. Even if we don't achieve 100 per cent by 2020, at least we have the culture to innovate and create. Maybe by 2030...it has to be continuous process, very-very important to be successful,"he said.

Mohamed Shariff said innovation and creativity could also be inculcated in the country's learning system so that students would be able to think out of the box.

To transform the society into an innovative and creative lot, efforts to educate individuals on its advantages must be stepped up, he said.

The society must understand that in the face of globalisation and stiff competition among countries, only the innovative and creative countries would progress in terms of technology, he added.

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