PROFILING MALAYSIA’S INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY CAPABILITIES AT WORLD’S LARGEST INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY EVENT
 

Kuala Lumpur, Thursday, 26 April 2012 – Malaysia will have a strategic presence at the world’s largest industrial biotechnology event – the 2012 BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing. In representing Malaysia, BiotechCorp will use this opportunity to profile Malaysia’s edge and capabilities within the industrial biotechnology sphere. The Congress offers unique networking opportunities, an overview of the latest technological developments and real world scenarios for bringing technological solutions to market. The event features discussions of high profile topics related to climate change, sustainability, new sources of fuel, financing and policy

“Our participation in the BIO World Congress this year will enable BiotechCorp to increase our visibility and exposures in view of most technology providers and major downstream players will be attending the event thus complementing our overall strategy to become the preferred location for biotech investment. This will also be a good opportunity for Malaysia to promote our Bioeconomy Initiative agenda which will lead to the creation of high income jobs for the people and to achieve the targeted GNI as the bottom line,” said Dato’ Dr Mohd Nazlee Kamal, CEO of BiotechCorp.

Bioeconomy, which encompasses the application of biotechnology to primary industries, is slated to become one of the National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) for Malaysia, following in the footsteps of mature countries such as the USA, China, Japan, The Netherlands, Germany and France. Bioeconomy, particularly through industrial biotechnology will be a paradigm shift to inject new approach to the existing industries in Malaysia such as the commodities and petrochemicals to harness Malaysia’s biodiversity in a sustainable manner.

Currently, Malaysia through its major plantation companies contributes more than 40% of the world’s palm oil productions that generates an estimated 80 million dry tonnes of biomass. With an estimated value of USD11.14 billion in 2015, biomass is targeted to be a vital contributor to the agricultural and industrial biotechnology sectors.

The launch of the National Biomass Strategy in November 2011 has placed Malaysia on the map as the world leader in new, innovative and sustainable industries. The Strategy will see the creation of new high value industries and 70,000 jobs of which 40,000 will be high-skilled. It is expected that by 2020, the Biomass Strategy will generate RM30 billion in new income for Malaysia.

Bioeconomy and Biomass will be amongst the topics discussed during the conference. BiotechCorp’s CEO, Dato’ Dr Mohd Nazlee Kamal will also be speaking at The World Congress general plenary session together with panelists from leading MNCs and institutions on the topic of “The Global Vision for Biomass Utilisation: How Biotech Can Get Us There”. Malaysia will also be represented in one of the break-out sessions which will be on “Oil Palm Biomass: Integrated Sustainable Value Creation”

The 2012 BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing Entering will be held from 29 April to 2 May, 2012 in Orlando, Florida and will bring together more than 1,000 attendees. More details on the event are available via http://www.bio.org/events/conferences/welcome-2012-bio-world-congress