Sirim plans to
take stake in companies
SHAH ALAM:
Starting from next year, Sirim Bhd will embark on a new arrangement where it
will take up a stake in the companies that are willing to buy its technologies
meant for commercialisation.
Sirim's newly-appointed president and chief executive, Dr Zainal Abidin Mohd Yusof, said this arrangement would enable the entrepreneurs to market their products better as they now have the technology partner on board as a director.
"We will definitely take a stake in the company and place one of our staff there as director just so that we are in the know about the company's plans in marketing our technologies. Through this new arrangement, we won't be charging an upfront fee anymore," he told Business Times in an interview here recently.
He added that Sirim is already in talks with several companies to start such an arrangement next year, once the strategic plan for Sirim's group of companies kicks off from January 2013 till end of 2017.
Sirim's newly-appointed president and chief executive, Dr Zainal Abidin Mohd Yusof, said this arrangement would enable the entrepreneurs to market their products better as they now have the technology partner on board as a director.
"We will definitely take a stake in the company and place one of our staff there as director just so that we are in the know about the company's plans in marketing our technologies. Through this new arrangement, we won't be charging an upfront fee anymore," he told Business Times in an interview here recently.
He added that Sirim is already in talks with several companies to start such an arrangement next year, once the strategic plan for Sirim's group of companies kicks off from January 2013 till end of 2017.
However, he said
Sirim has not decided on the size of the stake that it plans to take in these
companies.
Zainal also said although Sirim is aware of the risk involved with this kind of participation, it is still willing to give it a shot because it feels that with Sirim as a partner, the companies could sell their technology better.
"We can steer them in the right direction so that our technologies upon commercialisation remains a success. We have had so many instances when we have sold our technologies to private companies and they failed to bring them to where they should be," he added.
Zainal said Sirim would go into these companies with an exit plan and only exit them when the time was right.
"We won't be charging them for the technologies anymore," he added.
He also said that Sirim would be specifically focused on three areas - energy and environment, machinery and equipment and medical devices.
"We used to have a lot of other sectors last time but we have decided to focus on these three sectors now because we don't want to overlap with other agencies," he said.
On the company's target income for this year, Zainal said it hoped to achieve revenue of RM405.12 million.
"We are the only company under the government who has been paying dividends for the past 18 years," added Zainal.
Sirim, a wholly-owned company under the Ministry of Finance, is a premier research and technology organisation providing timely and focused research on technologies across many science disciplines.
It has over 2,000 staff, including 183 researchers and 34 engineers.
Zainal also said although Sirim is aware of the risk involved with this kind of participation, it is still willing to give it a shot because it feels that with Sirim as a partner, the companies could sell their technology better.
"We can steer them in the right direction so that our technologies upon commercialisation remains a success. We have had so many instances when we have sold our technologies to private companies and they failed to bring them to where they should be," he added.
Zainal said Sirim would go into these companies with an exit plan and only exit them when the time was right.
"We won't be charging them for the technologies anymore," he added.
He also said that Sirim would be specifically focused on three areas - energy and environment, machinery and equipment and medical devices.
"We used to have a lot of other sectors last time but we have decided to focus on these three sectors now because we don't want to overlap with other agencies," he said.
On the company's target income for this year, Zainal said it hoped to achieve revenue of RM405.12 million.
"We are the only company under the government who has been paying dividends for the past 18 years," added Zainal.
Sirim, a wholly-owned company under the Ministry of Finance, is a premier research and technology organisation providing timely and focused research on technologies across many science disciplines.
It has over 2,000 staff, including 183 researchers and 34 engineers.
Source : New Straits Times Date
: 9 July 2012 Today's Pick (09/07/12/123/817)
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