Sirim hopeful of govt raising grant

SIRIM Bhd, which aims to be the most prominent research organisation in the country, is hopeful that the government will continue to increase its grant to implement more projects that can enhance the country's socio-economy. Its chief technology officer Ir Dr Mohamad Jamil Sulaiman said the government has been generous with its grant allocation, which has allowed Sirim to conduct research to produce high-impact products for the nation.

Source from (Business Times): http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/SIRIM11/Article/
Published: April 12, 2013

He said Sirim's next main objective is to commercialise the end products or services it has been working on.

"Commercialisation makes our research more relevant so we can ensure that we contribute to the national agenda in turning the country into a high-income nation," Mohamad Jamil said.

He added that Sirim's research work includes making sure that the end result will produce new industries and create jobs.

Currently, Sirim's commercialised products include medical-related products such as artificial bones, wound-management products and titanium alloy implant for surgeons to fix skull fractures.

It also has done research on beauty products that are based on marine life such even from budu, Kelantan's popular fish sauce made from fermented seafood product.

"When we do research, we take care of the environment aspect, too, so we can play our role in green technology," he said, adding that Sirim is now in talks with car manufacturers to develop its own lithium ion batteries, to be launched some time this year for light electric vehicles.

Mohamad Jamil said Sirim is responsible for inventing E-Jari, the biometric finger print technology that it had licensed to a local company.

"The government gave us the grant to invent this and for commercialisation purposes, we sold it to a reliable entrepreneur who has since been doing very well, raking millions in revenue," he said.

He stressed that Sirim does not only conduct research for high-end products but it also reaches out to the rural community to improve their livelihood.

"For example, we did a research on micro hydro, a technology which uses water to produce electricity and this has been implemented in quite a number of villages in Sabah, Sarawak and Raub, Pahang," said Mohamad Jamil.

Sirim also provides training for rural-based entrepreneurs whose creativity and natural talent needs polishing.