40,000 Biotech Knowledge Workers Needed By 2011

40,000 Biotech Knowledge Workers Needed By 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 (Bernama) -- While there is a balance between supply and demand for knowledge workforce in the biotech industry, the need will rise to 40,000 by 2011 and double this number by 2015.

"Currently, the country has about 1,000 knowledge workers in the biotech field, working in 66 companies. However these are start-up companies that will continue to grow and expand. By 2011, we expect these companies to be the prime champions of Malaysia's biotech industry," said BiotechCorp chief executive officer Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood.

"Thus, there is greater need for a competitive workforce in the industry. We want to ensure that supply will be on hand because we do not want a situation where we will have to bring in foreigners to meet the industry's needs," he told a press conference on "BiotechCorp Human Capital Development Results", here Thursday.

"To ensure the workforce would meet the industry's needs, BiotechCorp has laid out training programmes and strategies for 2008 to develop the necessary human capital in the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

"These include improving the curriculum at the higher learning institutions and strengthening the industry's linkages to develop multi-disciplinary individuals, competent not only in science but also in business, entrepreneurship and communication.

"Many people have the wrong impression when it comes to biotechnology product development. It is not only about science, as we must be able to sell the product and ensure its commercialisation prospects. Thus, our focus is also on intellectual property rights and laws and to speed up the patent process.

"We have attached four biotech patent examiners with the Australian Patent Office and secured agreements from European and Korean patent offices where each patent office received four Malaysian patent examiners for attachment and training in 2007. Our target is to develop 60 certified IP managers by the year end," Iskandar said.

Another of BiotechCorp's strategy is the Biotechnology Entrepreneurship Special Training (BeST) Programme, which is an extensive and structured programme to enhance the employability of graduates.

BeST has trained 206 people so far, and 25 percent of the graduates found employment immediately while the rest managed to obtain placements at biotechnology-related companies or agencies for industrial training.

"BiotechCorp is also in a five-year partnership with the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research (qb3) to collaborate in research, human capital and bio-entrepreneurship development," said Iskandar.

Under the qb3 partnership, a Global Bio Entrepreneurship Course was conducted for 20 Malaysian senior talents from research universities. The course content also covered life sciences, entrepreneurship and venture financing, conducted by leading biotechnology experts worldwide.

Added to this, is BiotechCorp's Executive-In-Residence Mentorship Programme which focuses on providing Malaysian scientific talents and biotechnology entrepreneurs with the resources and experience of acknowledged and established biotechnology experts.

Already, BiotechCorp has provided its first Executive-In-Residence mentor who has begun mentoring participating BioNexus companies and is in the midst of signing up another.

-- BERNAMA

Source: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news.php?id=324577