KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Creative Economy and Innovation Centre’s (SCENIC) will put focus on accelerating the progress of technology-based Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs), researchers and innovators. 

SCENIC General Manager, Viviantie Sarjuni said when curating programmes for talents in Sabah, they will take a holistic approach by studying the roles of stakeholders in the ecosystem and initiatives available for our talents according to their current competencies.

“However, we can only do this by collaborating with other agencies and non-governmental organisations. 

“We have identified Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) as a strong and calibre federal partner to run various capacity building initiatives in Sabah. 

“We partnered with MTDC based on their credibility in producing successful technology-based entrepreneurs nationwide and we need their assistance to emulate the same thing in Sabah through their up-to-date capacity building programmes,” she said in a statement, adding SCENIC also invited other agencies to work with them to achieve the goal.

SCENIC, which is under the purview of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation Sabah, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with MTDC last night (April 26, 2022) for a one year collaboration. 

The signing took place in conjunction with the launching of the Ministry’s Strategic Plan at a hotel here. 

Viviantie added that the pandemic has taught people to be more resilient which includes building a proof pandemic business model that leverages technology and innovation.

“We need to stay relevant to the industry needs and at the same time produce globally competent Sabahan talents.” 

MTDC Chief Executive Officer, Dato’ Norhalim Yunus said through its Centre of 9 Pillars, companies in its ecosystem will provide local solutions, transfer knowledge and know-how in the Industry 4.0. 

“We will bring relevant technology innovation for Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) adoption to improve manufacturing & production processes. 

“For researchers, we will expose them to entrepreneurship and to bring their research output to market via tech-innovation. 

“We will also assist them for market and technology validation, upskilling and reskilling of SMEs towards Industry 4.0.” 

There will be at least 20 companies to be involved in terms of technology adoption or talent development this year. 

After the signing, MTDC will also kickstart MYRESKILL IoT programme for 15 members from Persatuan Penggerak Multimedia Negeri Sabah. 

As for the signing between JPSM and IPDAS, which also took place during the launching,   it involves cooperation in the implementation of the Islamic Studies module as an additional subject at the JPSM training centre, which is the Institute of Technical and Commercial Training (ILTP).