PUTRAJAYA: The Public-Private Research Network (PPRN) initiative will be able to assist micro, small and medium enterprises (SME) to boost their productivity after being severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Higher Education Ministry (MOHE) secretary-general Datuk Seri Abdul Razak Jaafar said.
He said PPRN, a strategic partnership model between institutions of higher learning, industries and government agencies, created a knowledge-friendly ecosystem, with industries presenting technological problems, while researchers provided suggestions to industries to solve them.
Under PPRN, which is financed by grants issued by the government and matched with donations from micro and SMEs or industries willing to solve their technological problems, micro and SMEs will be assisted by researches from institutes of higher learning and research institutes, he said.
Micro and SMEs are the backbone of the country’s economy, with an estimated 1.2 million such enterprises in operation at the end of 2020, a staggering 97.2 per cent of the total of registered businesses in Malaysia, he added.
“A majority of them, however, are still unable to compete and need to be strengthened after being affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, the PPRN initiative will hopefully help them in boosting productivity,” he said.
The text of his speech for the virtual launch of the PPRN portal, Facebook, management system and book today was read by MOHE deputy secretary (management and development) Dr Mohd Zabri Yusoff.
“Indirectly, the PPRN initiative will assist the government in targeting micro and SMEs to contribute 45 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2025,” Abdul Razak said.
According to him, 667 partnership projects involving companies from various industrial sectors and research groups have been implemented since 2015 under the PPRN initiative.
The projects involved costs of over RM27 million, with RM21 million financed by PPRN and the remainder being financed by companies.
“From the 667 projects, 471 were successfully implemented,” he added.
Source : https://www.thesundaily.my/local/pprn-initiative-to-boost-productivity-of-smes-IE8879758