THE government wants Khazanah Bhd to take on a more active role in research and development (R&D), said Mohamed Azmin Ali.

The economic affairs minister said his first board meeting at the sovereign wealth fund discussed speeding up R&D efforts.

“In the first board meeting about a month ago, what was discussed was to separate (the) strategic development of Khazanah on the commercial side. I think that some of the strategic development programmes need to be speeded up in terms of research and development and green investments.

“On the commercial side, we are engaging with different companies to ensure the returns to Khazanah are good. It is the role of Khazanah to get involved in R&D and help the government develop the strategic assets,” he said on the sidelines of Khazanah’s annual Mega Trends Forum in Kuala Lumpur.

Along with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Azmin was appointed to the Khazanah board on July 30.

Under the new Pakatan Harapan government, Malaysia is looking to reverse the slide in electrical and electronic exports that has fallen from 60% in the early 2000s to 40% in 2014.

Among the initiatives, the government is looking at are new and green technologies. The new government has yet to announce its plans although Dr Mahathir is due to table the mid-term Review of the 11th Malaysia Plan on October 18.

“There are concerns about the priorities and revisit the electrical and electronic sector that needs to be addressed. It has dropped tremendously.

“Commodities have shown positive signs, but the electrical and electronic sector has dropped. How do we balance this because we need to look at new sectors to encourage FDIs that can provide jobs, which is sustainable and increase productivity.”

Azmin said Khazanah has not discussed any new appointments to its board.

“We had the first board meeting a month ago. No discussion to that effect,” said Azmin.

 He was commenting on a speculative report that Khazanah was looking to appoint a Chinese national to its board.

The person said the report, is one of the founders of China’s largest artificial intelligence companies that has links to e-commerce company Ali Baba. – October 8, 2018.