AMMI wants govt to relook policy for investments in R&D

Posted on 23 June 2012 - 05:32am

GEORGE TOWN (June 22, 2012): The Association of Malaysian Medical Industries (AMMI) wants the government to relook the policy for investments in research and development (R&D) activities in the 2013 Budget, which will be tabled in Parliament on Sept 28, 2012.

Its chairman, Daniel Lim, said AMMI has submitted its wish list to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry and Malaysian Investment Development Authority to ensure efforts in enhancing the industry.

"Among the highlights would be the broadening of the incentives for R&D-related activities in order to move up the value chain of the industry," he said at a media briefing here today.

Lim said incentives should not only be for product development as Malaysia has the potential to become a R&D centre for medical devices as large anchor companies had been based here for over

15 years. AMMI secretary, Hitendra Joshi, said the government should look at the incentive structure and consider innovation and modernisation in order to further improve the industry.

He said current incentives for R&D-related activities were old-fashioned as they focused on equipment. The incentives should also look at talents, pattern procurement or pattern filing, he said.

Hitendra said AMMI has also requested that medical devices be categorised under goods and services tax (GST) zero-rated, similar to the pharmaceutical industry.

Lim said industry sales were likely to hit RM5.2 billion this year from RM4.9 billion in 2011 amid growing demand for medical devices and positive growth in healthcare segment.

Furthermore, the government has recognised it as one of the industries that would help the country achieve high-income and developed status by 2020.

Lim said Malaysia was among the preferred destinations for medical devices and provided a platform to enter the Asian market. – Bernama