By Abdul Ghani Nasir
Pic by Hairul Azmi Mohd Jahid
BANGI, 27 July, 2011 – Innovation, entrepreneurial mindset and exploitation of new ideas can pave the way for added value to be captured from the same base of capital and human resources, said Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and International Affairs) UKM, Prof Ir Dato’ Dr Hassan Basri.
Opening the International Conference of Organizational Innovation, organized by the Faculty of Economy and Management UKM, here today, Prof Hassan said because of this Malaysia has stressed the importance of innovation in national development.
“Malaysia has clearly outlined the importance of innovation in transforming itself into a developed nation by the year 2020.
“As the national university, UKM has an important role to play in enhancing and enriching education, research and community services as a means to inculcate and develop an innovation culture,” he said.
As a research university, UKM has already set up 16 research institutes to accelerate research in new areas.
“The establishment of UKM-CESMED and UKM-Graduate School of Business, as well as the introduction of a new academic programme – Bachelors of Entrepreneurship and Innovation – bears testimony to UKM’s commitment to promote excellence through innovative teaching, research and university-industry-community collaborations,” he said.
The conference is sponsored by UKM as well as the International Association of Organizational Innovation (IAOI) of the United States and Chang Jung Christian University, Taiwan.
As a leading global association of organisational innovation IAOI has contributed to understanding, practice, creativity and innovation in China, Taiwan and USA and was now extending its network to Malaysia.
More than 200 scholars, students and entrepreneurs from various countries attended the two day conference. The scholars including those from United Arab Emirates (UAE), Republic of Czech, Russia, Taiwan, New Zealand, Portugal, United States and UKM will be presenting 152 working papers.