To accelerate the national
and regional development and manufacture of green energy products and
businesses, Malaysia has partnered with Japan-based Asian Energy
Investments Pte Ltd. (AIE) in a $100 million investment mega-fund to
seed promising new ideas and innovators in Southeast Asia.
A new Malaysia-based
fund management company -- Putra Eco Ventures Inc. -- will both channel
the investments and provide business consultancy services to green
technology companies.
The Fund will focus on
investments in small- to mid-size technologies and enterprises,
according to proponents led by Dr. Zakri Abdul Hamid, Science Advisor to
the Prime Minister of Malaysia, and Dr Kiyoshi Kurokawa, Chairman of
AEI and former Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Japan.
Malaysian Prime
Minister Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak presided at the
announcement, made at a meeting in San Francisco of the Prime Minister's
Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council, made up of
distinguished leading global sustainable development experts, including
Dr. Kurokawa. Dr. Zakri co-chairs the Council secretariat with Ellis
Rubinstein, President of the New York Academy of Sciences.
"Over the last two
centuries, as the world has rapidly urbanized, humanity has turned
progressively to sources of heat and power that emit less carbon per
unit of energy," says Dr. Zakri. "Wood burning of centuries ago yielded
to coal in the Industrial Revolution, then oil, natural gas and
electricity. It is a phenomenon known as energy decarbonization and a
process driven almost entirely by markets, not politics."
"This new green energy
venture capital fund is a wise investment in developing a family of new
technologies able to draw and store energy from renewable,
inexhaustible sources such as the sun, wind or tides. Demand for these
products and businesses will be again driven by consumer convenience,
cost advantage and environmental necessity, and logic dictates that they
will eventually trump non-renewable fossil fuels in global markets
short years or decades from now."
The fund management
company will also be charged with helping revive Malaysian biodiesel
plants idled by sharp increases in the price of crude palm oil, on which
the plants depended for feedstock, investigating cheaper biodiesel
feedstocks, including municipal waste and waste oil palm biomass.
Malaysia's interests
in the new fund will be managed by the Malaysian Industry-Government
Group for High Technology (MIGHT), represented by its wholly-owned
subsidiary, MIGHT Technology Nurturing Sdn Bhd.
AEI is an offshore
investment arm of Industrial Decisions, Inc. (IDI) of Japan, which is
under the umbrella of Mizuho Financial Group.
Under a second,
parallel agreement announced between General Electric, Green Tech and
Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Malaysia's main energy provider, the
country will also accelerate its electricity "Smart Grid" modernization.
A "smart grid" uses
technology to collect practical information about electricity use and
supply -- insights useful to improving the efficiency, reliability,
economics, and sustainability of electricity production and
distribution.
Collaborations under the agreement include:
* Support for development of a National Policy and Regulatory Framework on Malaysian smart grid
* The study, assessment and sharing of best practices related to key technologies and solutions
* Exploring the
establishment of a Center of Excellence to position Malaysia as regional
leader in innovative, sustainable, and public-private
partnership-driven smart grid initiatives.
Says Prime minister
Razak: "Moving forward, the nation strives for a sustainable growth
where science, technology and industry will be expected to play a key
role. We hope to leverage on science and technology, including in green
technology, to further transform Malaysia into a knowledge-based,
innovation-driven economy that is environmentally friendly while aiming
to join the ranks of developed nations."
The announcements
conform with advice offered by leading development experts on Malaysia's
Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council, who consider
investments in green energy the #1 priority for countries looking to
move up the world's financial ranks.
According to Jerry
Hultin, for example, Senior Presidential Fellow of New York University,
and President Emeritus of the Polytechnic Institute of NYU, green energy
is an investment of foremost importance for emerging economy countries,
simultaneously promoting environmental interests, energy security,
entrepreneurship, human capital and prosperity.
Mr. Hultin also
advocates smart electricity initiatives essential to cities of the
future, developing and demonstrating energy-saving technologies for
creating smart cars, smart buildings and 'microgrids' (local power
generation via small urban wind turbines), which together will offer the
highest returns on green energy investments.
GSIAC, created by
Prime Minister Razak in 2011 through a partnership between MIGHT and the
New York Academy of Sciences, is comprised of world leaders in
economics, business, science and technology, each volunteering to help
Malaysia pioneer a development path in a sustainable manner.
* * * * *
About the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT)
MIGHT is a
not-for-profit company limited by guarantee under the purview of the
Prime Minister of Malaysia. Built on the strength of public-private
partnership with more than 100 members, both local and international,
from industry, government and academia, MIGHT is dedicated to providing a
platform for industry-government consensus building in the drive to
advance high technology competency in Malaysia. www.might.org.my
About the New York Academy of Sciences
NYAS is an
independent, not-for-profit organization that, since 1817, has been
committed to advancing science, technology, and society worldwide. With
25,000 members in 140 countries, the Academy is creating a global
community of science for the benefit of humanity. The Academy's core
mission is to advance scientific knowledge, positively impact the major
global challenges of society with science-based solutions, and increase
the number of scientifically informed individuals in society at large. www.nyas.org
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