More than 100,000 Hectares of Idle Lands set to be Developed through BIOECONOMY MALAYSIA ACCELERATOR PROGRAMMES

Kuala Lumpur, 29 October 2013 ~The Bioeconomy Community Development Programme is set to drive the country’s socio-economic position to greater heights by working with state governments to utilise idle lands for contract farming to provide new streams of income to the farmers.

Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation (BiotechCorp) Chief Executive Officer, Dato’ Dr. Mohd Nazlee Kamal briefed the Menteri Besars and Chief Ministers on the programme during the meeting of Menteri Besars and Chief Ministers at Perdana Putra in Putrajaya today.

“BiotechCorp will be working with the relevant ministries, state governments, economic corridors and government agencies to help develop more than 100,000 hectares of idle lands in Malaysia. Products produced from these areas will become feedstock for processing into higher value products by BioNexus companies,” said Dato’ Dr. Nazlee.

According to Dato’ Dr. Nazlee, cooperatives and contract farming organisations will enter into contracts with BioNexus Status companies. BiotechCorp will develop new business models aim to benefit parties in the value chain. The farmers will benefit from the programme as they will grow crops that will have guaranteed buy back from BioNexus
companies.

“The programme will benefit more than 3,500 farmers annually as they stand to earn a potential monthly income of up to RM4,500 per farmer, whereas the industry is set to benefit from stable supply and high value raw materials,” added Dato’ Dr. Nazlee.

Bioeconomy Community Development Programme is the main thrust of the Bioeconomy Malaysia Accelerator Programmes or Bio-Accelerators

Through Bio-Accelerators, products that will be produced by the Community Development Programme will be processed into high value products through new technology and innovation by the BioNexus companies while at the same time strengthening entrepreneurial skills for commercialisation into domestic and international markets.

Bio-Accelerators are designed with a holistic value chain approach, whereby these programmes are inter-linked and will be implemented simultaneously to ensure the success of the Bioeconomy Community Development Programme. The focus of these Programmes will be mainly to increase the multiplier effects on the economy and positive impact on the income and welfare of the people.

According to BiotechCorp’s estimates, Bioeconomy will help boost Malaysia’s GDP between 8-10% by the year 2020. This in turn will generate more than RM43 billion GNI for the country alongside 160,000 new job opportunities and bringing in about RM15 billion in new investments.

“We at BiotechCorp are looking forward to work with the state governments in this programme as we are confident, with good coordination, team work and focus, we will be able to not just raise the income potential of our farmers but also bring our nation closer to achieving its goal to be a fully developed high income nation by 2020,” said Dato’ Dr. Nazlee.