PETALING JAYA: Malaysian Biotechnology Corp Sdn Bhd (Biotechcorp) will focus on the development of human capital as it moves towards commercialisation in 2011.
Chief executive officer Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood said it was important to have a skilled pool of workers as the company prepared for its transition from science to business.
“We need knowledge workers who can contribute to new product developments to intensify acquisitions and licensing,” Iskandar told StarBiz.
Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood
“By 2011, it will become imperative that we expand the pool of knowledge workers substantially,” he added. Iskandar also said that the growth and success of the biotechnology sector (in the commercialisation stage) ultimately hinged on a company's ability to expand the capability and competency of knowledge workers.
With that, Biotechcorp has already embarked on a number of initiatives towards developing its working capital, such as its Biotechnology Entrepreneur Development Framework.
“The framework provides a comprehensive approach in developing new entrepreneurs, facilitating the creation of new biotechnology business ventures and transforming ideas into potential commercialisation,” Iskandar said.
He said a series of proactive and progressive programmes had also been developed with the collaboration of international biotechnology talent development experts.
“These programmes include entrepreneur development workshops, entrepreneur development conferences and mentoring programmes.''
Biotechcorp has further initiated a programme called the “Biotechnology Entrepreneurship Special Training (BeST)”, a development programme combining classroom training, laboratory work and industry internship.
“Experiential training through BeST equips graduates for entry level positions into the Malaysian biotechnology industry,” Iskandar said.
Biotechcorp is also partnering the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research to collaborate in research, human capital and bio-entrepreneurship development.
Iskandar said the five-year partnership would facilitate collaboration on research and training to equip local talent with the latest multi-disciplinary and entrepreneurial skills.
“Under the partnership, a global bio entrepreneurship course offering content training by leading biotechnology experts from around the world was conducted for 20 Malaysian senior talents from research universities,'' he said.
According to Iskandar, Biotechcorp was targeting to expand its current pool of knowledge workers to 80,000 from 40,000 by 2011.
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