KL- London Science Pact

The Governments of Malaysia and the United Kingdom agreed on closer cooperation on science, technology and engineering on 7 October 2011, following on from previous discussions between Prime Ministers of both nations. In a statement issued jointly by Sir John Beddington, Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Government and Emeritus Prof Dato' Dr Zakri Abdul Hamid, Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia - the parties agreed to increase cooperation on bilateral research collaboration as well as science and technology programs and activities, through the "UK-Malaysia Partners in Science" program.

Priority areas highlighted by the statement include nuclear energy, research commercialization, innovation, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and maritime engineering among others. "Long a friend, the UK has a great history of collaboration with Malaysia. Today we take another step towards strengthening that friendship in the area of bilateral science and technology relations," said Zakri.

Sir John also espoused the value created by the Malaysia-UK collaboration saying: "British and Malaysian researchers from the two organizations are bringing together a shared vision and complementary capabilities."

For more news about biotechnology in Malaysia, email Kenneth Fung of the Malaysia Biotechnology Information Center at kenneth@bic.org.my.