Najib introduces NCII to help companies become innovative

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak today introduced the National Corporate Innovation Index (NCII) as a measurement tool to help stimulate and drive innovation among large companies in Malaysia.
He said the NCII was designed to accelerate growth of corporations in the nation and significant players in their respective markets, which is crucial towards driving the economy.
Najib said this platform would give companies a comprehensive overview of crucial areas that needed to be managed to boost their innovativeness.
"It aims to institutionalise innovation and governance within corporations and help identify mechanisms for corporations to engage in innovation activities that will ensure their long-term sustainability," Najib said in his welcoming address at the "Innovating Malaysia Conference 2014" at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, here today.
The prime minister said the NCII aspired to develop a more comprehensive, well-reasoned view of innovation investment and returns and educate the larger private sector community to help nurture a climate that encourages and not penalises innovation endeavours.
"A key initiative that I have mandated the Malaysia Innovation Agency or AIM, to execute the NCII, collaborating with Nesta, a non-profit foundation for innovation based in the United Kingdom.
"I chair the governance council of AIM and see the value of developing a tool that would help our corporations to be more innovative, and the NCII is a tool that is three years in the making," he explained.
Najib added benchmarking with international measures and working with respected international bodies had seen much progress made on the development of the NCII measurement tools.
"Furthermore, if a corporation outlines its innovation journey and shares compelling stories on innovation as what Amazon and eBay do with its stakeholders and the investment community, it can help players in the equity markets better understand and value innovation," he said.
The NCII, Najib said, would serve as a badge of honour for companies in the long run, that would be similar in spirit to Bursa Malaysia's Environmental, Social and Governance Index, that would benchmark the transparency of the nation's leading corporations and make the results widely available.
He said Malaysia was on a national strategic drive towards a more knowledge-intensive economy to create significant Gross National Income (GNI) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Najib reminded that innovation was not only about research and development or high technology or patents, but rather about turning a new idea into something profitable or something that creates a new value.
Later, after the launch, Najib toured the Innovation Malaysia exhibition booths, and attended a brief closed-door meeting with the chief executive officers and top management of leading innovative companies which had participated in developing the NCII. – Bernama