Riverside Majestic Hotel, Kuching
09 March 2011

Yang Berbahagia Datuk Abang Karim,
Bod Members,
Perbadanan Produktiviti Malaysia (MPC)

Yang Berusaha Encik Suhaimy Abdul Talib,
Pengarah MPC Wilayah Sarawak

Para pembentang kertas kerja, tetamu-tetamu kehormat, wakil-wakil organisasi dan para peserta seminar sekalian

1. First and foremost, i would like to thank MPC for inviting me to deliver the keynote address and to officiate The Seminar On Creating Excellent Organisation Through Creativity And Innovation. Thank to all present today for your participation. I was informed that there are 150 participants attending today’s seminar.

2. I would also like to welcome the paper presenters; Encik Azli Paat and Encik Mohd Fuad Ahmad who have kindly consented to share their knowledge and experiences in this seminar. I believe, the commitment and cooperation shown by you, participants and your respective organisations would create the synergy towards enhancing productivity, quality, innovativeness and competitiveness of the country.

Ladies and gentlemen,

3. The ability to leverage on innovation as a key driver of growth has become significantly important in enhancing productivity and competitiveness. As Malaysia transits to a high growth path and high income nation, we need to put in place an enabling environment where productivity, competitiveness and innovation will drive the creation of high value-added activities in the economy. To expedite this noble aim, the government has established a special innovation unit (UNIK) under the Prime Minister’s Department in July 2010; as a one-stop centre to formulate policies and strategies for a conducive ecosystem to drive innovation.

4. The recent Global Innovation Index (GII) Report 2009-2010 showed overall ranking that, Malaysia was ranked 28th as compared at 25th in 2008-2009. Meanwhile the innovation input index for our country which underpins enhancement innovative capacity has also lowered from the 25th position in 2008-2009 to 29th in 2009-2010. The report showed us that we need to enhance our human innovative capacity as to drive further our innovation capability of the nation. Lacking on this crucial development, we would be left behind in the future and thus would delay our national agenda towards high- income nation.

Ladies and gentlemen,

5. The important element which contributes to a nation’s productivity and competitiveness is the capacity to foster innovation as well as the greater utilization of the state of the art technologies. The transition into an innovation driven economy, however, requires skills, competencies and capabilities to meet the needs of knowledge-intensive and skills based industries. This requires a greater investment and strategic focus towards enhancing human capital’s skills and innovative capabilities. It also requires efforts not only to create, but also attract and retain talent for such function. As competition for talent intensifies in the global market place, the need to retain as well as attract the best skills and talents from abroad will become even more challenging for us. To fellow talented Malaysians abroad, we need you to come back to our homeland to build the country.

6. Deliberating on innovative organisation, it is important for organisations to build an environment that can sustain creativity and innovation.  Firstly, organisations should have a long term based strategy to develop the work plan on innovations. With appropriate goals and practical plans, workers would be able to realise their ideas for successful implementation. The work plan is intended to have the ideas generated by the workers aligned with their company strategies. Many companies believe that they are not short of ideas but have difficulties in executing these ideas. Having a plan is a key strategy that will establish a framework to sustain creativity and innovativeness.

7. Secondly, there has to be an in-built culture within the organisation to support creativity and innovation. The organizations which have made great progress towards making innovation a core competency are those in which the leaders and employees are genuinely open to ideas or feedback from others on new ways of doing things.

8. Thirdly, as world’s economy going through rapid changes, it is crucial for companies to adopt technology as their integral part of business strategy. Companies need to change their approaches to innovation in order to be more competitive. By adopting new technologies, not only we can differentiate ourselves and give us competitive edge against any lower cost producers, but most importantly we can satisfy customer’s needs.

Ladies and gentlemen

9. In line with MPC’s vision to be  the leading organisation in productivity enhancement for global competitiveness and innovation, MPC has rebranded itself to assume new roles and responsibilities.  With the aim of building a forward-looking, responsive and dynamic MPC, five departments were established to integrate both innovation and productivity programmes in enhancing the competitiveness of industries.  The new departments are the Regulatory Review Department; the Enterprise Innovation Department; the Business Excellence Department; the Global Competitiveness Department and the Knowledge Management Department.

10. In addition to this seminar, MPC Sarawak has scheduled 3 series of Creativity And Innovation Seminar for the year 2011, which the first is being held today, the next will be in Miri (June 2011) and lastly back in Kuching (September 2011). I hope that, this seminar will shed new insights and directions on how we could create excellent organisation through creativity and innovation which ultimately would augur well for the nation development towards high-income nation.

11. On a final note, i would like to once again thank the presenters for their contributions. And to all participants for your support and i wish all of you a productive deliberation.  It is now my pleasure to declare this “Seminar On Creating Excellent Organisation Through Creativity And Innovation  2011”  open.

Thank you.