Civil Engineering Reference
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• Realize the promise of mutual enrichment by making it easy and cost-effective
for companies to do business in the MSC.
• Promote technology and knowledge development in the MSC through incen-
tives for commercial R and D and through the establishment of leading incu-
bation centers.
• Facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship by supporting the development of a
financial infrastructure that provides venture capital and public listings for
smaller companies.
3.2 The Finance Element of the MSC
In order to build technological capacities among SMEs, it was recognized that the
existing traditional financial institutions could not help. In the MSC Cluster more
options have made available like venture Capital from the MDeC for creating tech-
entrepreneurial culture in addition, to other VCs. The MDeC also provides Special
Grants for developing risk taking culture to help in developing an R and D culture.
In the recent past a small number of Venture Capital firms have merged in the
country that provide some funding to the SMEs—but one issue about VC funding
was that it was not easily available to many entrepreneurs/SMEs, especially those
who were not doing R&D and more users of technology or technology based (e.g.,
E-commerce companies). To overcome this lacunae, there some innovative
funding products especially from two funding agencies that stand out—viz the
Cradle Investment Program (CIP) of the Malaysian Venture Capital Corporation
and Malaysin Debt Ventures. Both the organizations have funds designed to the
needs of the local market—in this case for Malaysia—and this was done by
identifying the areas where there was some lacunae using the framework of the
enterprise life cycle.
3.3 Research University in MSC Cluster—The Multimedia
University
The availability of technically trained manpower for tech-based SMEs was rec-
ognized as a need in Malaysia and also support from a university had been rec-
ognized as an important factor for technology development in many clusters. In
order to facilitate such support, in addition to identifying universities in the
neighborhood, a new university, the Multimedia University was set up within the
MSC cluster in order to perform these roles. It not only provides the required
manpower—but more importantly serves as a research support base for SMEs
which cannot afford to set up expensive infrastructure needed to conduct R and D
activities for enhancing their technological capabilities. The university also has
institutions like the Center for Commercialization and Technopreneur Develop-
ment (CCTD) to help in creating startups and also to help SMEs in the cluster.
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