MUNYONYO (Uganda), July 28 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is prioritising a balanced approach between technology-driven and market-driven innovations in order to sustain its global competitiveness.

Towards this end, the government has introduced the National Innovation Model, said Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili.

"In a technology-driven innovation model, scientists are funded for research and development and the technology will be developed organically, thus eventually commercialising their ideas for the global market," Ongkili said.

"This was the method most predominantly taken by Malaysia prior to the establishment of the National Innovation Model," he said when delivering his talk on innovation at the 19th Global Smart Partnership Dialogue here Tuesday.

Ongkili said, "In a market-driven innovation model, the market is determined before hand by knowledge technopreneurs who will acquire the best science and technology leading to rapid commercialisation to meet market demands".

He said the success of this model depended on strong committed and innovative political leadership and a comprehensive well-coordinated National Innovation System (NIS) which involved interactions between key stakeholders.

At least six major elements are in the NIS, including government policy coordination, innovation support, education and training, technopreneurial involvement by the industry, and strong and productive research and development (R&D) sector within the academia, research institutes and industries, he said.

"These are well supported by an innovative financial sector to provide venture capital, financial support and investment," he added.

Ongkili said that 2010 was recently declared the "Year of Innovation and Creativity" with the involvement of eight ministries to promote innovation to all sectors of economy and grassroot communities.

Among the many programmes planned are an ideas carnival at national, state and district levels, and an international summit on innovation as well as a national festival of ideas, he said.

Ongkili also said that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak, is a key advocate for innovation.

This, he said, was reflected in his recent statement that for Malaysia "to strive and compete, we must leverage on our creativity and innovativeness to provide that critical difference"