KUALA LUMPUR, 25 FEBRUARY 2009 – There was a 140 per cent increase in entries to a business plan competition for institutions of higher learning in Malaysia, with 526 entries in total, according to the Malaysian ICT agency Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC).
In its fifth edition, the MSC (Multimedia Supercorridor) Malaysia-IHL (institutions of higher learning) business plan competition 2008/9 (MIBPC) aims to encourage the younger generation to choose entrepreneurship as a career, said MDeC chief executive officer Dato’ Badlisham Ghazali.
“The MIBPC is open to all institutions of higher learning and divided into two categories, business idea and business plan,” said Badlisham. “The number of entries for MIBPC 2008/09 recorded a 140 per cent increase with 354 in the business ideas category and 172 in the business plans category as compared to 267 and 76 respectively received from 31 IHLs in the fourth edition of the competition.”
He said that under the business idea category, undergraduate students are required to demonstrate the commercial viability of a business idea that does not require a prototype or product. “In the business plan category, which is open to all postgraduate students, researchers, academic and non-academic personnel, a comprehensive business plan detailing the commercial viability of the idea has to be submitted, preferably coupled with a prototype or product.”
The MIBPC is organised by the driver of MSC Malaysia, the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), through its Technopreneur & Enterprise Development Division, under the National Unipreneur Development Programme.
Three ICT areas
“The MIBPC focuses strongly on three ICT clusters: creative multimedia content (CMC), shared services and outsourcing (SSO) and software e-solutions (SeS) which includes application software (AS) and mobility embedded software and hardware (MESH),” added Badlisham.
He said: “Challenging their creativity in business, science and technology, the aim of the competition is to create a new genre of successful technology entrepreneurs (technopreneurs) who take charge of their own destinies and create employment opportunities for the good of the community.”
Announcement of the MIBPC 2008/9 winners, which included contenders from UTP (Universiti Teknologi Petronas), UDM (Universiti Darul Iman Malaysia) and UTeM (Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka), was witnessed by science, technology and innovation (MOSTI) deputy minister, Fadillah Yusoff, and higher education (MOHE) deputy minister, Datuk Ir. Idris Haron.
Generation of vibrant dynamic technopreneurs
MOSTI’s Yusoff said, “Malaysia requires a generation of vibrant and dynamic people with sound technopreneurship skills to move MSC Malaysia and our country forward in today’s competitive business landscape.” said Fadillah. “I urge you to take advantage of these support and grants that are available through the ministries and MDeC, in particular.”
“There is a need for our education system to develop individuals who can think analytically, creatively and innovatively,” said MOHE’s Haron.“I believe this competition is a very good platform for the IHLs to present, demonstrate and commercialise their innovations.”
“In 2007/08 competition, a total of seven teams from the finalists in the competition were successful in their application to the MSC Malaysia Pre Seed Fund grant. This translates to a total of approximately RM1 million (US$279,503) being awarded to these finalists," said MDeC’s Badlisham.
