Support System for Entrepreneurial and Small and Medium Ventures in ICT Sector: Case of the Technopreneurship Development Program (TDP) Flagship of Malaysia’s Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Project - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 237

or in other words create demand for the services of the firms in the MSC. The four
identified 'flagship applications' networks of firm within this group are
1. Electronic Government flagship
2. National Multipurpose Card flagship
3. Smart Schools flagship
4. Telemedicine flagship
3.5.2 Multimedia Environment Flagships Clusters
In the case of this flagship groups, firms involved carry out their activities within
interactive clusters to develop ICT technology, products and applications,
designed for enabling the applications in the Multimedia Development Flagship.
Thus, the main aim of this flagship is to aid the Multimedia Development Flagship
firms. This category consists of firms developing applications and classified under
the
1. R&D Flagship Cluster,
2. E-Business Cluster (combining the Worldwide Manufacturing Web and Bor-
derless Marketing Flagships), and most recently the
3. Technopreneur Flagship Cluster—all this with the aim of providing specific sup-
port to SME type companies in developing multimedia products and applications.
4. Currently in planning is also a Biotech Cluster.
The two groups of MSC Flagship networks of firms function or operate sepa-
rately with their own goals. The MSC Flagship co-ordination unit, an institution
under the regional development organization MDeC, links the firms in two groups
of MSC Flagships to realize the synergies planned between them (Fig. 3 ).
4 MSC Regional System of Innovation (RDI)—Favorable
for SMEs?
The MSC project has had mixed reviews, and one issue was that given the number
of incentives, not enough number of local start-ups and SMEs were emerging.
Some of the elements in the RSI that have been generally helpful are like the
existence of a regional development organization—the MDeC as a one-stop shop
for all things MSC and also incentives (Financial and Nonfinancial). These have
been instrumental in attracting MNCs and larger players to operate in the MSC but
not very helpful in attracting and developing startups or entrepreneurial ventures
and SMEs very much. The business climate also was perceived to favor larger or
MNC players—who are self sufficient in terms of business services. The problems
faced by SMEs have been that operating costs in the cluster and related technology