Defence and security company Saab has announced that it will take a number of initiatives in order to strengthen the Sweden Malaysia Innovation Initiative (SMII). SMII is an effort to nurture innovations in Malaysia through a co-operation between The Swedish Embassy of Malaysia, Business Sweden and Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM).
Sweden has been continuously ranked among the top countries renowned for innovation in the world. Saab is one of the founding members of SMII, which, for example, includes a seminar series on state-of-the-art defence technology.
One part of the Swedish-Malaysian innovation co-operation is to build relationships between academia, industry and authorities to develop the culture of innovation amongst the younger generation. Saab now invites officers, decision makers, governmental agency representatives, students and researchers to an Open Innovation Learning Week in Sweden in October 2015. One essential focus will be to link the Triple Helix model with aerospace and defence innovation to share with and inspire Malaysian partners. This is a concept successfully previous performed with Brazil.
“Saab’s long history of investing in research and development and turning new ideas into commercial success is something we want to spread to others. We have also very good experience from fruitful collaboration between academia, industry and government that can inspire colleagues in Malaysia”, says Thomas Lindén, head of Saab in Malaysia.
The Sweden – Malaysia Innovation Initiative (SMII) was set up as a platform to foster relationships between Academia, Industry and the Government in a Triple Helix model to pioneer new innovative ideas, and to develop the culture of innovation amongst the younger generation. The goal was to build a stronger relationship between the two nations and utilize the innovative strengths both Malaysia and Sweden possess.
In May 2011 the Embassy of Sweden Kuala Lumpur initiated the premier Sweden Malaysia Innovation Days. It was supported by the Swedish Trade Council, the Malaysian-Swedish Business Association (Masba), and the Go International Group (to showcase innovation in music).
Malaysia’s strive to become a more innovative country as declared by Prime Minister Najib Razak. Sweden, meanwhile, has a solid reputation for being one of the most innovative countries in the world and is viewed by many countries as a role model in creating a competitive and innovative economy, so here was an excellent common denominator.
The Sweden-Malaysia Innovative initiative was again held on 12th – 22nd September 2013 with a string of activities lined up. It was also the biggest culinary event that the Sweden Embassy in Malaysia has been involved in so far, named ‘Culinary Sweden – A Great Food Nation’ promoting Sweden’s culinary delights and encouraging cultural exchange through food between the Malaysian and Swedish community.
