Technology policy in Malaysia

Abstract

Among newly industrialising economies, Malaysia has mounted notably comprehensive efforts to build a national innovation system. Despite continuously updating Science and Technology (S&T) policies to reflect prevailing understandings of successful innovation strategy, its achievements in technology development are mixed. Invoking Ergas' (1987) binary typology, this study finds that Malaysia's mission-oriented technology policies have been less successful than diffusion-oriented interventions. The government's institutional capacities have often been unequal to its more ambitious technology development goals, but sufficient to create effective infrastructure for the deployment and diffusion of advanced technology from abroad. Weak linkages between public sector technology agencies and private enterprises are a second limiting factor. Malaysia's experience suggests that the scope for deliberate efforts to engineer national innovation systems is constrained by institutional and political factors even when technology policies themselves are comprehensive and up-to-date.