Scania Malaysia (Scania) and Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to jointly explore viable commercial opportunities for biofuels from municipal waste in Malaysia, in line with the National Biomass Strategy 2020 (NBS 2020).

At the signing, SCANIA was represented by the Managing Director of SCANIA Southeast Asia, Marie Sjödin Enstrom and AIM, represented by its Chief Executive Officer, Mark Rozario. The signing was witnessed by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Dato’ Mah Siew Keong and Sweden’s Minister for Strategic Development and Nordic Cooperation, H.E. Mrs. Kistina Persson.

The visit was in conjunction with the Sweden Malaysia Innovation Day (SMID) 2015 to further strengthen cooperation in nurturing open and collaborative innovation between Swedish industry players and local stakeholders.

“SCANIA has the technology to catalyse this project as it has been one of the main contributors to the development and adaption of biofuels, development and producing commercial biofuel-based transport solutions for over 20 years in Sweden and around the world,” said the Trade Commissioner of Sweden in Malaysia, Carl Malmqvist.

“In the Global Innovation Index 2015, Malaysia has improved its innovation performance ranking to 32nd place out of 141 countries compared to last year. We are also in the top-two among the upper-middle-income economies, after China, and among a group of countries outperforming our economic peers, and have improved to the 18th position in the Global Competition Index for the same period, which is a commendable position,” said Dato’ Mah Siew Keong.

“We want to encourage the flow of ideas and strengthen open innovation. This means creating the right ecosystem, increasing investment and bringing more companies into the knowledge economy”.

SMID 2015 is a two- day event involving seven Swedish companies – Atlas Copco, BAE System Bofors, Cale Access, SAAB, Scania, SKF and StrongPoint. Each of these companies are known for their innovative strength and will have the opportunity to share their Swedish innovations for potential collaborations in both open and closed sessions.